Moovly beats competition to win Amadeus IT Group contractMoovly beats competition to win Amadeus IT Group contract VANCOUVER, CANADA — (Sept 26, 2019) Moovly Media Inc. (TSX VENTURE: MVY) (OTC: MVVYF) (FRANKFURT: 0PV2) (“Moovly” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has signed a contract with Amadeus IT Group (BME: AMS), the leading technology provider for the global travel industry. After a competitive evaluation process, Moovly was selected as the best solution to provide Amadeus with a corporate video creation platform for its 15,000 employees worldwide. Moovly provides Amadeus with a fully customized version of its platform, branded as the “Amadeus Video Studio” and integrated with its corporate Brand Centre, containing Amadeus media files for employees to use in their video creation. The implemented solution includes a back-office management application for Amadeus administrators, including account and subscription management, as well as analytics on the usage of the platform by its employees. Geert Coppens, Co-Founder and CTO of Moovly, commented: “We are very proud to be selected by Amadeus as the best platform for their internal video creation needs. The successful implementation of Moovly at Amadeus and the integration with their corporate DAM illustrate the capabilities of our flexible API-based platform to meet the increasing video creation needs of large enterprises.” Fernando Diez, Senior Platform & Project Manager at Amadeus stated “We did a thorough evaluation of the market through a tender process and after a detailed evaluation of Moovly and competitors, selected Moovly. Our experience since signing has been excellent and have found Moovly to be both responsive and flexible to our needs.” About Amadeus IT Group: Amadeus IT Group, S.A. (a publicly listed company on the Madrid Stock Exchange), is a leading transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, providing advanced technology solutions to our travel provider and travel agency customers worldwide. We act as an international network providing comprehensive real-time search, pricing, booking, ticketing and other processing solutions to travel providers and travel agencies through our Distribution business area, and we offer travel providers (today, principally airlines) an extensive portfolio of technology solutions which automate certain mission-critical business processes, such as reservations, inventory management and other operational processes, through our IT Solutions business area. About Moovly: Moovly is the leading provider of creative cloud-based tools to tell marketing, communications and training stories using videos and video presentations. Moovly’s advanced Studio Editor, with millions of assets seamlessly integrated (via partnerships with Getty Images & Storyblocks) is all you need to make engaging video content to promote, communicate or explain your product, service or message. Moovly’s API and Automator technologies allow third parties to automate parts or all of the content creation process, including mass video customization, personalized videos (video version of mail merge), automatic content creation or updating by connecting data sources. With clients including users from >300 of the Fortune 500, small businesses, freelancers and Ivy league universities, Moovly is an intuitive, cost effective choice for DIY creation of engaging video-based content. “Your story begins with Moovly”
Files are available for download in our press room at www.moovly.com/pressroom. For additional information about Moovly, please refer to www.moovly.com. Brendon Grunewald Kelsey Chin The post Moovly beats competition to win Amadeus IT Group contract appeared first on Moovly - Easily make videos online. from Moovly – Easily make videos online https://www.moovly.com/investors/Moovly-beats-competition-to-win-Amadeus-IT-Group-contract via IFTTT from https://seanbrian0.blogspot.com/2019/09/moovly-beats-competition-to-win-amadeus.html
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When most people launch a new website, they use a shared hosting service to meet their web hosting needs. That’s because shared hosting is the most basic and cost-effective way to host a beginner website. But as your site scales, its hosting needs are going to change. That’s when it’s time to start looking for a virtual private server—better known as VPS hosting. VPS hosting is a step above shared web hosting. With a virtual private server, you’ll still be sharing a single server, but you’ll be sharing it with fewer websites. Here’s how it works.
Basically, a virtual private server is one server that’s divided into separate virtual machines. Each virtual server can be run with custom configurations and separate operating systems. VPS hosting comes with dedicated server resources as well. So even though you’re sharing a single server with other websites, your RAM and CPU are independent of those sites. A virtual private server is best for those of you who want the benefits of a dedicated server, but don’t want to pay the high costs associated with dedicated hosting. Here’s a visual representation that shows the difference between shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated servers. Most of you probably don’t need a dedicated server. But you’ll eventually outgrow your shared hosting plan. Upgrading from a shared plan to a virtual private server will improve the speed and performance of your website. Since you won’t be sharing resources, your site will be more responsive on the user-end. VPS hosting is more equipped to handle traffic spikes as well. For more information on how VPS stacks up against other hosting options, check out my guide on the best web hosting providers. Virtual Private Server ReviewsFinding a VPS hosting plan can be intimidating. There are so many hosting providers out there offering VPS options. Taking the time to research all of them would take days. Fortunately for you, I’ve already taken the time to do all of the research. I’ve gone through dozens of VPS hosting plans and narrowed down the top options for you to consider. These are the top 7 VPS hosting providers: I’ve included a detailed review for each one of these services below. I highlighted their plans and pricing while explaining what makes each one a top VPS hosting option. You’ll also learn about some of the potential downsides or weaknesses of these providers as well. BluehostBluehost is an industry leader in the web hosting space. Their VPS plans offer a wide range of hosting options, to accommodate the needs of nearly every website. The reason why Bluehost stands out as a top choice to consider is because their virtual private servers offer both power and flexibility. They allow multi-server management, meaning you can add more space to your plan at any given time. This is ideal for websites that need the ability to scale at a moment’s notice, without any delays or downtime. You’ll be able to accomplish this without any assistance from a Bluehost administrator, directly from your advanced cPanel. Here’s an overview of Bluehost’s plans and pricing: Standard VPS
Enhanced VPS
Premium VPS
Ultimate VPS
As you can see, Bluehost offers pricing and resources for websites of all shapes and sizes. Even if you’re looking for an entry-level VPS plan, I’d still recommend starting with the Enhanced VPS as opposed to the Standard. For just $10 more per month, you’ll get double the SSD, RAM, and bandwidth. Although it’s worth noting that the prices listed above are promotional rates only. You’ll end up paying $29.99, $59.99, $89.99, and $119.99, respectively, when your plan renews. All Bluehost virtual private server plans include 24/7 support and a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a fair price, you’ll benefit from plenty of resources, support, and uptime compared to other options on the market. InMotionUnlike other web hosting providers that are best-known for shared hosting or dedicated servers, InMotion specializes in VPS hosting. It’s a top choice to consider whether you’re upgrading from an existing plan or looking to host a brand new website. One of the biggest differentiators of InMotion is that they offer traditional managed VPS hosting as well as Cloud VPS hosting. Altogether, they have six VPS plans (three for each category). Let’s take a look at each one to see what’s best for your website. InMotion Managed VPS Hosting The managed plans are ideal for business owners, agencies, and resellers. Each plan offers free server management, updates, and free site migrations. You’ll also benefit from a resource monitoring dashboard, unlimited domains, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited MySQL databases.
To get these low introductory rates, you’ll need to sign up for a 2-year plan. All plans are ecommerce optimized and come with optional root access for those of you who want more advanced control over your settings. InMotion Cloud VPS The cloud plans offered by InMotion are best for developers and system administrators. That’s because each plan comes with full root access, including SSH keys, which gives you total control over customization. As a developer, you’ll essentially get a blank-slate to customize a VPS to meet the exact needs for your website. You can also code in the language of your preference, like Java, Ruby, and other population choices. InMotion Cloud VPS provides enterprise-level hardware, with SSD servers that are 20x faster than the competition.
To get the best introductory rates for cloud VPS, you need to commit for one year, as opposed to two years with the managed plans. As you can see, the pricing for the managed plans and cloud hosting plans are very similar. So the biggest difference between the two is basically how much control you want over the server. Unless you’re a developer, I think that the majority of you should lean toward the managed plans, just based on the simplicity. LiquidWebLiquidWeb isn’t one of the most well-known hosting providers on the market, but they still offer excellent hosting solutions. All LiquidWeb VPS plans are fully managed. They manage your hardware and the network. Their administrators also handle all security updates and patches as well as support for the operating system and all software. Unlike some of the other hosting providers we’ve seen so far, LiquidWeb doesn’t have any special or fancy names for their plans. You’re essentially paying for your resources, starting with RAM.
All of these prices are based on annual contracts. You’ll pay significantly more if you choose to go month-to-month. LiquidWeb has 2-year plans available upon request. But you’ll need to talk to their customer service team to find out those special rates for your website. Speaking of customer service, the support offered by the LiquidWeb team is exceptional. They are available 24/7 via phone, email, and live chat. All LiquidWeb virtual private servers have 10 TB of bandwidth, which is the most we’ve seen so far. The 16 GB of RAM plan has up to 200 GB of SSD disk space, which is also the highest we’ve seen so far. Most VPS providers don’t offer a 16 GB plan. I can’t imagine most of you will need it, but for those of you who do, this is where I recommend getting it. To put that into perspective for you, 16 GB of RAM is double the amount of the highest plans offered by both Bluehost and InMotion. HostGatorHostGator is another popular name in the world of web hosting. While they are best known for their low-cost shared hosting plans, they also have virtual private servers that are worth considering. HostGator offers competitive VPS pricing, although their plans aren’t the lowest that we’ve seen. Snappy 2000
Snappy 4000
Snappy 8000
The prices are fair for the resources. But like most hosting providers, these introductory rates will increase when your plan renews. However, HostGator gives you the option to lock in these low rates for the longest time compared to other options we’ve seen so far. You can pay these intro rates for 36 months. But with that said, the price increases are the most significant compared to other providers as well. The introductory rates are all roughly 75% cheaper than the actual rates. HostGator stands out with its reliable and multi-layer security network. This enhanced protection paired with the ability to easily scale your resources is what makes HostGator a top VPS choice on our list. Just keep in mind that their customer service and support falls a bit short compared to other providers. HostPapaIf you’re looking for an enterprise-grade virtual private server, HostPapa needs to be toward the top of your list. With up to 12 CPU cores, 24 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of SDD, HostPapa’s capacity is unmatched. Here’s a closer look at all of their plans and pricing. So for those of you who want as many resources as possible, you’ll have to pay top dollar to get it. The Extreme VPS plan starts at $249.99 per month and renews at $299.999 per month. It’s safe to say that’s a huge jump from their lowest price-point, starting at just $19.99 per month. For those of you who are developers or more advanced, you’ll have root access to make customized changes. Another top benefit of HostPapa is that you can increase your power and resources at any time. They also give you the option to manage multiple servers simultaneously. Regardless of your plan, you can always add an extra server directly from the HostPapa dashboard. So for those of you who are planning to scale significantly, you won’t have to worry about outgrowing your VPS. All HostPapa VPS plans are ecommerce optimized and provide enhanced security for online stores. HostPapa is a top choice for companies who want to build a web-based app as well. For technology and features that are so advanced, the cPanel interface offered by HostPapa is extremely easy to use. You can monitor all of your resources, and make any adjustments in real-time with just one click. If you’re currently using another hosting provider, HostPapa offers a free domain transfer and free VPS migration. They also have outstanding 24/7 support. With all of this in mind, I’d only consider using HostPapa if you need a plan with the most possible resources. Otherwise, you can get comparable plans at a better rate elsewhere. iPageIf you’re looking for a low-cost VPS plan, look no further than iPage. With plans starting as low as $19.99 per month, iPage offers a quality service at an affordable rate. iPage has been around for more than 20 years. Over 1 million sites are using this platform for web hosting. So if you decide to go with one of their VPS plans, you know that you’re getting it from a reputable provider. Let’s take a closer look at their plans. Basic VPS
Business VPS
Optimum VPS
As you can see, these are the lowest prices that we’ve seen so far, even after the full-price renewal rates kick in. iPage also specializes in web design. So for those of you who are building a new website from scratch and want to start with a cheap VPS hosting plan, iPage is a top choice. Even with these low rates, you’ll still benefit from quality 24/7 support. You just won’t get the capacity and resources offered by some higher-tier providers. A2 HostingA2 Hosting stands out because they offer both managed and unmanaged VPS plans. Typically, unmanaged VPS plans with root access and custom features come at a higher price point. But not with A2 Hosting. Experienced developers can get an unmanaged virtual private server for as low as $5 per month. Although with just 20 GB of storage and 512 MB of RAM, this entry-level plan likely won’t meet your needs. Here’s a closer look at A2’s VPS plans: Unmanaged VPS Plans
With the unmanaged plans, you can configure your server preferences for disk space, CPU, memory, and bandwidth. Obviously, any adjustments will impact the price. Managed VPS Plans and Core VPS Plans
The only difference between the Managed plans and Core plans is that the core plans come with root access. However, you won’t be able to configure your server the same way you would if you select an unmanaged plan. Overall, A2 is a great choice for developers who want complete control and customization over their VPS at an affordable rate. For traditional managed hosting, I’d probably look elsewhere. With that said, A2 Hosting has one of the best customer support teams on the market. So if that’s something that you prioritize, it’s worth taking a closer look at their plans. How to Find the Best VPS Host For YouNow that you’ve had a chance to look at some specific VPS plans, it’s time to determine the best possible choice for you and your website. To make things easier, your decision should be based on two main factors.
In most cases, price and features will go hand-in-hand. If you need the highest possible RAM, disk space, and storage, then you should expect to pay higher prices. Aside from that, you could lean toward one provider or plan over another based on other features like customer support, security, and the ability to scale. With all of that in mind, I’ve put each VPS provider above into a “best for” category. Use can use list this as guidance to steer you in the right direction.
As you can see, each review on our list stands out for a different reason. So I’m sure the needs of you and your website will fit somewhere into the categories above. Virtual Servers Compared to Other Hosting OptionsBefore you finalize your decision on a VPS hosting plan, you need to make sure that a virtual private server is your best option. If you’re creating a new website from scratch and don’t plan on having too much traffic for a long time, then shared hosting will be your best bet. For those of you who want complete customization over your server and expect 100,000+ visitors each month, then you might want to consider a dedicated server. You can refer to my guide on the best dedicated hosting plans for more information on this. VPS hosting is for everyone else who falls in the middle. So if you’ve outgrown your shared plan but don’t need the resources offered on a dedicated server, then a virtual private server will be perfect for your website. As a reminder here are my top picks for the best VPS hosting. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-vps-hosting/ By now, marketers are business owners all over the world have recognized the importance of SEO. It’s no secret that your website needs to improve its search engine ranking. What is SEO? The acronym stands for “search engine optimization.” Essentially, it’s the practice of driving organic search traffic to a website. The keyword here is organic, meaning you’re not paying for a top position through PPC campaigns. More traffic, more conversions, more dollars. That’s why SEO is a crucial component of every website on the planet.
In my experience, so many marketers and entrepreneurs out there have this false sense of belief that they understand the ins and outs of SEO and how it works. In reality, this is usually not the case. SEO is like anything else. Unless you’ve gone through practice, training, or some type of education, it’s going to be difficult to master. Fortunately, the digital era has made it possible for you to learn SEO on your own with the help of online courses and guides. But which ones are the best? I’ve narrowed it down for you. Who needs SEO certification?SEO courses and guides are great for anyone, regardless of their experience with the subject. It doesn’t matter if you’re an SEO beginner, have years of experience dabbling with SEO, or fall somewhere in-between; SEO certifications are for everyone. SEO courses are well worth the investment. In some cases, the only investment will be your time. There are plenty of free SEO courses out there, and I’ll cover some of the best ones in this guide. Some courses you’ll need to pay for. But again, it’s still worth the investment. The cost is marginal compared to the benefits of watching your SERPs skyrocket toward the top position. Plus, SEO is a high-demand skill. Even if you don’t have your own website, any marketer, entrepreneur, or freelancer can make money by charging websites for SEO services. The Best SEO CoursesNow that you understand the importance of proper SEO training, it’s time to see where you can get it from. I’ve identified the best SEO courses on the Internet today. As I mentioned before, there’s a mix of some free and some paid options. Some courses are made for beginners, while others focus on more complex SEO components. Regardless of what you’re looking for, I know there’s an option for you on this list. SEMrush AcademySEMrush is a big player in the world of SEO. This SaaS company sells software for online visibility and digital marketing. SEO is a huge component of this. SEMrush has been around since 2008, before the surge and popularity of SEO as we know it today. The company started as an SEO tool and browser extension before diving into the SaaS model. With such a strong history in SEO, it’s no surprise that the SEMrush Academy offers some of the best SEO courses out there. Right now, they have just under 20 courses specifically focusing on SEO. These courses cover things like:
The courses and exams range anywhere from 10 minutes to 5 hours. So there’s definitely plenty of variety here. SEMrush Academy teaches SEO with a series of video tutorials and lessons. In addition to the lessons, they also offer several different SEO certifications. You can take an exam, and get a certification if you pass. This is a great option for marketers, agencies, and aspiring SEOs. You can use these certifications to show prospective clients that you’re an expert in different areas of SEO. SEMrush Academy also has courses and exams on social media marketing, content marketing, affiliate programs, and PPC. So check these out while you’re on the site as well. The best part? All courses and exams offered by SEMrush are 100% free, including the certifications. UdemyWith more than 100,000 online courses, Udemy is one of the most popular platforms for learning something new. Online training is their specialty. One of the reasons why I like Udemy so much is the way that they present courses on their website. Each course has ratings and reviews, so you can see what others have to say about their experience. It also tells you exactly how many other people have enrolled to date. Some of Udemy’s most popular SEO courses include:
The more advanced courses will tell you if you need to have any prior experience with certain components of SEO before you get started. So make sure you’re taking courses that align with your skill level. Courses start at $10.99 and can be accessed on your mobile device as well. When you buy a course from Udemy, you have full lifetime access to it, and you’ll also receive a certificate of completion. Udemy also specializes in courses for teams. If you want training for five or more people, check out Udemy for Business. This is a great choice for those of you who run an agency. You can get your entire team certified at the same time. Yoast AcademyYoast is a name that many of you may already be familiar with. If you’ve read my guide on the best WordPress plugins, you know that the Yoast SEO plugin was ranked as the best overall SEO plugin for WordPress. Yoast Academy offers SEO training courses for beginners, content SEO, technical SEO, and bundles as well. Here are some of their most popular SEO courses:
The vast majority of the courses are paid, but they do offer a free beginner training course as well. Prices range from $39 to $349. Most courses fall in the $150 – $250 range. So if you’re interested in taking multiple courses from the Yoast Academy, your best bet is the bundle deal. For $41.58 per month (billed annually), you’ll have access to all of the SEO courses. If they come out with new SEO courses while you’re subscribed, you’ll have access to those as well. HubSpot AcademyHubSpot is another well-known name in the digital marketing industry. They offer marketing and sales CRM software to businesses. In addition to their great products, services, reputation, and blogs, HubSpot also has an academy offering educational tools for various subjects. While HubSpot doesn’t have a large variety of SEO courses like some of the other options on our list, they have one course that covers several components of SEO. In total, the course contains 21 videos, four lessons, and three quizzes. The total completion time is less than two hours. The lessons are broken down into the following categories:
By completing the lessons, you’ll be able to evaluate and improve your website’s SEO with a new perspective from experts who know how to rank on Google. Another reason why I love this HubSpot course is because they focus on how to build backlinks, which is something I’ve covered extensively here at QuickSprout. Overall, it’s a free course from an industry leader that will take less than two hours of your time. I can’t find any reason why you wouldn’t want to take advantage of this. The Blueprint TrainingThe Blueprint SEO Training has 13 SEO courses; four of which are free. These courses are designed for agencies, so the paid ones are a little bit pricier compared to some of the other sites we’ve seen. Courses range anywhere from $99 to $999, with average price point right in the middle of those two numbers. They offer SEO training for things like:
Since the course is made for agencies, it also includes helpful educational guides on agency staffing, client onboarding, and project management. Rather than purchasing each one individually, you can save by buying in bulk. It’s $2,999 for full access to all of their courses. The Best SEO GuidesIf you don’t want to take a course on SEO, there are plenty of outstanding free guides on the Internet as well. While the courses are definitely better for actionable training and certifications, the guides are a great way to get your feet wet with SEO. Check these out if you want to learn the SEO basics from different experts in the industry. MOZ – The Beginner’s Guide to SEOMOZ is one of the most well-known and reputable names in the SEO industry. They specialize in SEO software and data tools for websites of all shapes and sizes. So it’s no surprise that their Beginner’s Guide to SEO is one of the best on the web. The guide is broken down into eight chapters, making it easy for you to skip and scan based on what you’re looking for. It covers the following SEO components:
MOZ also includes a helpful SEO glossary, which is a great way to get familiar with terms you’ll come across as you’re studying, learning, and applying SEO. Google – Search Optimization Starter GuideI’m sure you’re familiar with the term, “straight from the horse’s mouth.” Well, in the world of SEO, Google is the horse. Your entire SEO strategy needs to revolve around Google’s algorithm. So reading the Search Optimization Starter Guide published by Google should be a top priority for everyone. The guide details things like:
It’s extensive, to say the least. The format of each section takes you through SEO best practices and things to avoid. So if Google is telling you to avoid it, then you better listen to them. Shopify – The Beginner’s Guide to Ecommerce SEOIt’s tough to talk about ecommerce without mentioning Shopify. Their ecommerce platform is an industry leader. Shopify also does a great job of setting merchants up for success. The Beginner’s Guide to Ecommerce SEO is worth the read. As the name implies, it’s niche-specific. So if you’re running a blog, small business site, or something other than ecommerce, then you don’t need to read it unless you want to further your personal education on the subject. The post outlines and explains how ecommerce sites can approach SEO differently. It’s a great angle and includes a free SEO checklist as well. Search Engine Land – Guide to SEOSearch Engine Land is a popular blog on, you guessed it—search engines. They’re constantly posting updates about search engine news, and have detailed guides on Google algorithm updates. As experts in this space, it’s no surprise that their Guide to SEO is nothing short of spectacular. The guide includes SEO success factors for:
I like the guide because it falls somewhere between a beginner’s guide and an expert guide. It has some SEO basics but takes an easy approach to some more advanced SEO strategies as well. Quick Sprout – Everything You Need to Know About SEOI couldn’t write a post on the best SEO guides without including my own. I’m obviously biased, but Quick Sprout’s guide on Everything You Need to Know About SEO covers exactly what the title says. The page is set up slightly different from the others we’ve seen so far. I have so much content published about SEO, that I use this guide to link to more specific and in-depth guides on certain subjects. There are more than 70 different SEO guides on this page. It includes SEO topics like:
The list goes on and on, and I’m constantly updating it and adding more. So if you want a wide range of both beginner, intermediate, and advanced SEO strategies, this is a great place to look. ConclusionWe live in a world where you can find nearly anything you want online. So why not take advantage of the SEO courses, guides, and learning tools at your disposal? The problem is there is too much saturation in this space. Everyone seems to have an “expert guide” or “best course” on SEO. It can be overwhelming for you to find the best one. So rather than spending hours searching on your own, just use this list instead. I’ve narrowed down the best SEO courses and guides on the Internet today. Be sure to check back on this page soon. I’m always updating it with suggestions when I find something new or better. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-seo-courses-and-guides/ We’ve covered the high-level strategy of building an online store that makes real money here. But how do you create the ecommerce website itself? In this guide, I’ll cover the 9 steps you need to take to create an ecommerce site in this guide. I’ve broken this guide into four sections:
More specifically, this guide includes:
You don’t need to finish all four phases in a day, though you could take a rough first draft approach and whip through them in a day, then iterate from there. Your choice! Let’s get building. The Prep Work: Before You Build Your Ecommerce WebsiteBefore we get into the actual work, I need to make a quick note: I’m going to assume that you’re creating an ecommerce website from scratch. If you already have an ecommerce store and want to transfer that store to Shopify, we have a detailed guide for that here. There’s a bit of prep work to do before you start building your Shopify store (or whatever ecommerce software you decide to go with). Don’t skip this stuff — it’s the foundation of your online business and if you get it wrong, your ecommerce business will not succeed. Step 1: Search for Your DomainBefore going any further, make sure your company name has a good domain you can grab. I’ve started several stores in the past, had a company name picked out, and then had a terrible time trying to find my domain. Eventually, I went with a completely different name so I had to backtrack and change a bunch of settings, or even recreate my store from scratch. The whole process goes much smoother if you make sure the domain you want is available from the beginning. Then you won’t have to redo anything. My go-to resource for checking which domains are available is Namecheap, which is our pick for best domain registrar. A domain registrar is just a fancy name for a company that registers domains on your behalf. Not only is Namecheap our favorite domain registrar, they also have a wicked fast domain search. Even when I’m not planning on buying a domain, I always use them to search for available domains. Don’t Buy Your Domain Name YetWhy? Shopify has the option of buying your domain for you. If you use Shopify to buy your domain, they’ll also configure the entire domain. There’s nothing you need to configure or set up, it’s super easy. I use Namecheap as our domain registrar and to manage all our domains. I believe it’s the best out there. It makes sense for us because we have a ton of sites and domains that we manage. Once you’re managing dozens of domains, keeping them all in one location helps a lot. It’s easier to keep them from expiring, update their settings, and sell them if you want. But if you only plan on having a couple of domains for your ecommerce site, buying them through Shopify is the easiest option. So hold off on buying for now and just check to make sure your domain isn’t taken. Step 2: Start Your Shopify Free TrialNow that you’ve made sure that you won’t have any trouble grabbing the domain for your company, head over to Shopify and start your 14-day free trial. Why Shopify? Aren’t there other ecommerce site builders? Yes, there are other ecommerce software options. To be honest, none of them compare to Shopify, it’s not even close. Years ago, ecommerce sites used to be fairly difficult to manage and build. Then Shopify entered the category and completely changed the game. And in the last few years, they’ve added lots of advanced functionality so they’ll easily scale with you no matter how big your site gets. Shopify completely outshines the competition in ease of use, feature depth, ability to scale, and price. Whenever I build an ecommerce site these days, I immediately go to Shopify. I don’t give a second thought to any of the other options out there. There’s no credit card required so you can get a good feel for how Shopify works without any risk on your end. The 14 days are also perfect for getting your site built. I recommend setting a goal to get your store live by the end of the trial period. Then you’ll be making money as soon as you start paying for Shopify. The trial will ask you a few questions about your company name, your address, and other standard details. Step 3: Get Your DomainWith your Shopify store created, it’s time to grab that domain you spotted earlier. The easiest option is to buy your domain within Shopify. In Shopify, you’ll find a domains section that allows you to search for a domain. Shopify sells .com domains for $14 per year. This is slightly higher than average. Most domain registrars will sell an available domain for $10 per year. If you’re creating your store from scratch and haven’t purchased your domain yet, I wouldn’t worry about trying to save $4 per year. Purchasing your domain directly from Shopify will save you the several extra steps you’d have to take to point your domain from your registrar to Shopify. I also recommend that you purchase the .org and .net versions of your company name. So you should have three domains in total:
What if you want to manage your domains outside of Shopify? In that case, choose a domain registrar like Namecheap and buy the domain there. Once you have your domain, you’ll need to configure a few domain settings to point the domain to Shopify. You’ll find detailed instructions on how to do this here. If you’re pointing your domain to Shopify, do this as soon as possible. It can take a few hours for domain settings to go into effect so you’ll want to make the changes and confirm everything is working before you’re ready to launch your store. The Framework: Use Shopify Themes to Create Your Ecommerce WebsiteStep 4: Choose Your ThemeYour Shopify theme determines how your store will look. It’s also how ecommerce stores are able to brand themselves using their site. You can also change the look and feel of your site without having to transfer off Shopify itself, simply by changing the theme. There are three ways to get your theme in place: Free Shopify ThemeShopify has plenty of great-looking themes that are also completely free. They’ve gotten so good over the years that it’s often difficult to tell what’s a free theme and what’s paid. Paid Shopify ThemeShopify also has plenty of paid themes in its marketplace. Most of them sell for $180. They offer a more polished site and extra features than the free themes. Custom Shopify ThemeYes, it is possible to get a theme built from scratch. If you go this route, an ecommerce marketing agency can build your site however you want. It can be completely customized to match your brand. The costs for a custom theme will vary widely. It depends a lot on how big of a business you have and your requirements. Pricing will range anywhere from a few thousand dollars to over a hundred thousand dollars for an enterprise ecommerce site. My Recommendation: Create Your Ecommerce Website with a Standard Shopify ThemeUnless you already have a thriving business, it’s best to use one of the standard Shopify themes. This gives you the ability to get started without having to spend much money. Then once your business has taken off and you have a good idea for how to evolve your site and brand, you can consider a customer Shopify theme. When we look for themes, we go to the Shopify theme store and rank all themes by popularity. Then we start at the top and scroll down until we find a few that could work. Ideally, you’ll find one that has a good “feel” for the type of customers your store will target. If you’re targeting men that spend time outdoors, a more rugged feel is ideal. If you’re selling luxury products, a polished and refined feel would be better. Don’t worry about getting this perfect — you only need a theme that’s “good enough” at this stage. We typically don’t worry about the free versus paid Shopify themes. We’re more focused on finding the theme that’s a good fit. If it happens to be free, even better. If it costs us $180, we consider that a small cost and don’t hesitate to purchase the theme. If you’re watching every dollar and would prefer to stick to a free theme, you’ll still find plenty to choose from. Once you’ve found the theme you want, get it installed on your Shopify store. That’ll make the next few steps a lot easier. The Build: How to Create an Ecommmerce Site that’s UniqueStep 5: Create Product PagesThis is where you’ll want to spend the most time. Product pages have a huge impact on how many of your website visitors end up converting to customers. And it’s one of the key parts of the business that you control. You can’t always control traffic. You can’t always control your suppliers. But you can control how much effort you put into making your product pages really high quality. Let’s go through the key parts of a product page and how to make them amazing. How to Pick the Right Product NameGreat product names have a huge impact on product sales. Just think of the legendary infomercial products like the Shamwow, Thighmaster, or OxiClean. Legendary product names are distinctive, instantly communicate the product benefit, and are easy to remember. I’ve named my share of products and all I have to say is that this is a lot harder than it looks. When I tried to name my first few products, it was really easy to fall into the trap of making the name too cute. There’s a fine line between a legendary name that resonates with your market and a cute name that everyone ignores. This is why it’s generally better to focus on names that are clear instead of trying to be too creative. Until you have a lot of naming experience, it’s really easy to pick a name that falls flat. A clear and boring name for a great product will still generate tons of revenue. A cute name will destroy it. So focus on clear names that your market will instantly understand. How to Write a Product Description that SellsThis is your one to two paragraph pitch for the product. Really spend time on this copy. Here’s a good structure to use in a standard product description:
This is a very common copywriting script that’s used for a lot of products, particularly any product that solves a distinct problem. That said, not all products solve problems. Apparel is a great example. If I buy a trendy shirt, what problem am I trying to solve? None really. Instead, my purchase is aspirational. I’m aspiring to feel more confident, refine my identity, and change my look. In this case, it’s less about the product description itself and more about how the shirt looks and makes me feel. The product photos end up carrying more weight than the product description itself. In other words, if the product description template above doesn’t work for your product because it doesn’t solve a distinct problem, don’t try to force it. Instead, use the photos to paint the dream your customers have the best you can. How to Shoot Professional Product PhotosPhotography standards have gotten super high these days. Everyone has an amazing camera on their smartphone and great photography has become super prevalent with Instagram, so ecommerce websites have to take their product photos really seriously. Don’t skimp here. Set up a small area to take high quality photos for your products and use the highest quality camera that you can get your hands on. Also make sure to take photos from multiple angles. If possible, you should also take a few photos of the product in action. If you’re selling bed sheets, take a photo of the sheets on a real bed. If you’re selling hiking shoes, take a photo of somewhere wearing them on a hiking trail. Use your photos to paint the dream as best you can. Step 6: Create Your Company PagesAfter your product pages are done, there are a few more pages you’ll need to create. Build a Simple Homepage with a Few Popular ProductsThe simplest and most effective way to approach your homepage on an ecommerce website is to feature your most popular products. Take your most popular product of all time and include a giant photo of it along with a call to action to its product page above the fold. Then include the next 3–5 most popular products on the rest of the homepage. This ensures that new site visitors are exposed to your best products immediately, increasing the percentage of people who purchase. Every six months or so, check your product popularity and rotate products as necessary. Large ecommerce websites rotate their featured products at a much faster pace. As they should! They have a lot more customers and a product catalog that’s constantly changing. As you get larger yourself, you’ll also want to increase the pace that you change your homepage. Start doing quarterly changes, then monthly, then weekly, and so on. Write a Compelling About Us PageA lot of visitors will go to your about page to figure out who you are and what you’re doing. This is a perfect opportunity to tell your story and inspire your customers to join you on your mission. Here are some questions and topics that you’ll want to cover on your about page:
Be authentic and write your copy as clearly as possible. The more that you can make this page resonate with your target market, the better. Add a Contact PageThis page is nice and easy. Keep it simple: include your phone number, address, and a contact form for people to reach out. The most important thing is to make sure that the contact form goes to an email address that’s actively being monitored. If you’re the only person working on your website, have it go to your email at that domain. For example, if I had a site called Sprout Candles, I’d create an email for [email protected] and have my contact form send messages there. That way I can respond to any customer requests really fast. Once you gain traction, one of the first areas of the business that you’ll want help on will be customer support. Lots of ecommerce websites hire folks part-time or for a few hours each day to go through all the customer messages for the day. At that point, send your contact form to a generic support email that can easily be managed by anyone on your team. If I reached that point with my hypothetical business, I’d change the email to [email protected]. An easy and low-cost way to get a phone set up for your business is Grasshopper. They give you a public phone number that can route to any phone number of your choosing. In the early days, you’ll have it redirect straight to your cell phone. That lets you respond to any phone calls directly without having to post your personal phone number publicly. Get Paid: Connect Payments and Set Prices in Your Ecommerce SiteSelling stuff — and getting paid — is the whole point of creating an ecommerce website. Otherwise it’d be a blog or a personal webpage, or even a hobby site. No matter how many hours of work you’re pouring into your website, if you’re not making sales and getting paid, your store isn’t a business; it’s an expensive hobby. This section is all about linking your payment processor and setting prices. Step 7: Set Up Your PaymentsOne of the best parts of building your site on Shopify is how easy it is to set up payments. Shopify does just about everything for you — all you need to do is configure a few settings and tell Shopify when to send your money. It’s really that easy. Those payment settings are under the Settings section in your Shopify account. Go ahead and set up Shopify Payments: Most of the info that’s required is pretty standard. It includes basic business info, some personal info, and your bank account so Shopify can transfer money to you. There is one setting that you should pay close attention to for your payments: your customer billing statement. Have you ever looked through your credit card statement, seen a charge, and thought to yourself, “What was that for? Did I get charged for something I didn’t buy?” It happens to us all. With the number of online purchases we make these days, it’s easy to forget what we bought. As an ecommerce store owner, the last thing you want is for your customers to get confused when they see your billing info on their card statements. If there’s any doubt or confusion, your refund and chargebacks will go up. The best way to avoid this is to make it as clear as possible which store the charge came from. Use the primary name your customers will recognize from your site. This will save you money and frustration later. Also, we do recommend setting up PayPal on your site as well. Some customers prefer using PayPal since they don’t have to enter their credit card info all the time. Especially on mobile, it’s a lot easier to pay. If you don’t have a PayPal account for your business already, they’re super easy to create. The only charge is the small percentage of each sale that PayPal will keep, which is standard across the industry. Go through the PayPal settings in Shopify and get it connected to your store and a PayPal option will appear in your checkout. Now that you can accept payments — how do you know you’re charging the right amounts? How to Set the Right Product PricesThe biggest myth about pricing is how businesses set prices. As consumers, we always assume that a business figures out how much something costs, adds a fair percentage to make some profit, and that’s how we get the final price. In reality, it never works like that. Consumers are willing to pay certain prices and if that price has a good margin, there’s a business. If there isn’t a good margin, the business model changes or there aren’t any good businesses in that category. Mobile apps are the best example of this. Regardless of what it costs to develop an app, people are only willing to pay about $5 for it. The app could do incredible things and literally change lives but it doesn’t matter, the ceiling is about $5. So how do consumers figure out what they’re willing to pay? Price comparisons. As consumers, we only understand relative pricing. When we try to evaluate if a price is fair, we find the nearest comparison and judge based on that.
Why is it possible to only charge $5 for a mobile app? All the other apps are about $5. Why is it okay to charge $5 for a latte? Starbucks charges about $5. If you try to sell me a t-shirt, I’ll instantly compare your price to the standards I’ve come to know. Cheap, plain t-shirts are about $5, nicer t-shirts about $20, and luxury fashion brand t-shirts $70–100. Depending on what kind of apparel company you have, I’ll compare to those benchmarks. But if there’s a felt-need and reasonable price point, I’ll buy. This is one of the key factors to ecommerce success. The bottom line is that every business needs to factor in the comparative pricing. Yes, you can stretch it a bit if you’re delivering more value. For example, some mobile apps charge $10 and make it work. But there are limits. Find the best comparison price to your product, nudge the price up or down depending on your value, then set your price. And as a ecommerce website owner, it’ll be up to you to decide if your business works at that price. Step 8: Get Your SSL CertificateSSL Certificates allow you to say that your site is extra secure. They’ve been around awhile and have become standard for any site that handles private information like email addresses and payment information. In the last few years, Google has made SSL certificates more prominent in its Chrome Browser. Here’s what a site looks like with an SSL certificate: Here’s what one looks like without it: There’s a very clear trend that sites with SSL certificates are being highlighted while sites without them are getting subtle warnings. While SSL certificates used to a “nice-to-have” feature, these days they’re considered a requirement for any ecommerce site. The last thing any ecommerce site owner wants is to make a customer hesitate because there isn’t an SSL certificate on the site. We strongly recommend that you set up your SSL certificate when you create your site. The best part? Shopify gives you a free SSL certificate for your store. That’s right, it’s 100% included with your store. Something to keep in mind for later on: there are different levels and types of SSL certificates. When getting a free SSL certificate, you’ll only get the basic options. More advanced SSL certificates come with extra monitoring, insurance, and extra security. Prices range from $150 to $2,000 per year depending on the exact package. The only folks that should worry about the more advanced SSL certificate options are those that handle credit cards themselves (you’re not; Shopify is doing it for you) or run very large enterprise sites. In other words, the free SSL certificate from Shopify is more than enough right now. If your ecommerce site gets super large, you can look at the other SSL certificate options later. After you get your domain purchased or connected in Shopify, you’ll find an option to add an SSL certificate in your Domains area. Step 9: Launch Your StoreThe big day has arrived! Everything is in place and now it’s time to launch your store. Shopify stores are password protected by default, so no one has been able to see your store until now. If anyone tried to visit your store until this point, this is what they saw: As soon as you remove the password protection, people will go straight to your real store without needing to enter a password. Before Shopify will let you launch your store, they require you start one of its paid plans. You’ll still get full credit for your trial; the billing period won’t begin until after the trial ends. But you do need to get your paid account set up before you can open your store. If you haven’t picked a paid plan yet, go ahead and do that now. Then go into your store settings and look for the password section: All you have to do is uncheck the “Enable password” box, save the settings, and your store will launch. Congrats! From here, it’s all about growing traffic to your ecommerce website, improving your products, and finding new products to offer. The better you get, the larger your business will become. Bonus Step: Add A Custom SearchA custom search helps your users find the product they want as quickly as possible. WordPress comes with its own search but the problem is it is very limited – especially if you have a large, complex e-commerce website. A good custom search will provide multiple filters so your users can narrow down the search until they find what they are looking for. For example, if you are selling homes you might have filters for the number of bedrooms, the price, the location, size and many other features. There are other search add-ons you might need such as AJAX updates so you can get new results on-the-fly and pagination which splits your results into pages. Not only is the search itself important but also the way you display your results as well. You might want to present your results as a list, a grid or even on a map. Toolset Search is a great option to build your search and customize your results as you do not need PHP coding. Experienced developers will save time building a search while novices will be able to add an important e-commerce feature they didn’t think they were capable of creating. Toolset also offers a Custom Types Training Course which will teach you how to create your search as well as other important features for e-commerce websites. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/create-ecommerce-website/
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Want to jump straight to the answer? — The best website builder for ecommerce for most of us, is Shopify. Launching an online store and trying to decide among the best ecommerce website builders, but don’t know which one’s right for you? They all seem to promise the same things: gorgeous templates, robust analytics, effortless inventory management, wonderful customer support. I’ve got you covered. I took a look at all of the options to find the best website builder for creating an online store.
In my research, I paid attention to the following criteria:
Which online store builder should I use?The short answer: You should probably go with Shopify, especially if you plan to do more than $5,000/month in sales. It’s the industry leader for a reason. It has the level of in-depth analytics, inventory management, POS, shipping options, and every other ecommerce feature that you need (and that you really need at the $5,000+ level. If you’re not thinking that big, it’s time to get started.
If you’re running more of a professional portfolio with some sales or subscription offerings, then hen you should check out Squarespace. Price wise, they’re basically the same. Squarespace wins for design; Shopify wins for ecommerce features. The other online store builder worth recommending is Wix, which has a pretty cool AI-builder that’ll turn your social media into a website with a coordinating color palette and pre-populated photos. If you run a bookings-based business, or a music business, then there are features in the Wix stores that are definitely worth checking out. It’s also one of the cheapest options, though if you’re picking your ecommerce platform by price alone, we need to have a side conversation about how you need to get your head in the game. There are some flaws I discuss further down in the in-depth reviews you should take into account — and see if they’re dealbreakers for you during your free-trial period.
I also reviewed WooCommerce which is an open-source, subscription-free way to sell things through your WordPress store. If you’re running a content site, I wholeheartedly recommend building your site with WordPress; it just wins in the content management space. Simple as that. Finally, Weebly, which was recently acquired by payments processor Square, is fine, but not impressive. The standards set by Shopify, Squarespace and the other contenders are just too high for Weebly to hit them. I’ll keep an eye out though. The top 5 ecommerce website builders comparedShopify
Shopify is my favorite ecommerce software — and the one I recommend to just about everyone. It’s the leader in the industry and rightfully so. The most important ecommerce features are ready to go without any customization, and Shopify makes it easy to customize anything else with its super robust app store. If you run into any issues, there’s 24/7 support. The worst thing about Shopify is the price point — and it’s generally competitive. The subscription, which starts at $29/month is right in line with what you’d pay with any hosted option, and so are the payment processing fees, which start at 2.9% + 30¢ credit card rates and only get better from there. I just don’t like the 2% additional fee for non-Shopify payment processors. I get that Shopify wants you to stay in the Shopify ecosystem, but offering multiple payment options is better for customers and one of our 8 quick wins for ecommerce sites. Pros
Cons
Shopify pricingIt’s competitive, but like I said charges an kind of annoying fee for external payment processors. All in all, I think the price is worth it.
The difference between these packages:
Shopify themesWhen choosing a theme, I suggest skipping filtering by price point. None of the themes on Shopify are going to break the bank — the most expensive themes are $180. If a theme has what you want, that’s the theme for you. Go to the all themes and ask yourself a few questions. The first question is the most important:
If the number is still large, then you can filter even further:
Find one you think you like? Check the theme reviews.
Take a look at the demo sites both mobile and desktop versions. Then take a look at the actual stores using the theme. Are these in line with what you want to make? If everything checks out, choose your theme. Don’t worry — you don’t have to buy it now. You’ll pay for it later, after you have a chance to test it out. Do check out the different versions of the theme — these will control the overall look and feel of your site, and you’ll want to decide which one you like best at this point. It can be hard to tell which one is best when you have only template content to look at. I went through this process with a hypothetical business that sells one, and found a theme I like for this business. I chose the Showcase theme because I like the full-page photography. I picked the theme, answered a few questions from Shopify and then got to my dashboard.
Key changes to make:
Shopify app storeIf there’s anything your theme doesn’t have, like customer reviews, there’s the Shopify app store. Basically the apps are little snippets of code that will add a feature to your Shopify store. It’s like having a dev build something for you, but because Shopify is a huge ecosystem, you don’t have to pay them the real price of custom building you something. They’re going to sell this same code to thousands of other stores. I love this about Shopify. According to the Shopify app store, more than 80% of stores use apps — and I’ll bet if you filtered that number by the number of live, active stores that are really making sales, then the percentage would be really really close to 100%. Squarespace
Squarespace has a reputation for beautifully designed templates. That reputation applies to its ecommerce store themes as well. They’re handsome, I must admit it. There are a few things you should know going in: I recommend Squarespace more for professional portfolio sites than true ecommerce stores. It’s just set up for those kinds of stores better. It’s not a bad idea to run your online store with Squarespace; Shopify is just easier when it comes to managing inventory and customizing every little nuance of your store. The Squarespace builder is a module-based builder. It’s not drag-and-drop — but you can get the hang of it pretty easy. Don’t get frustrated by the “demo” content or “sample” pages. You’ll have to copy the page before you can customize it, a silly step but not one to deter you from getting your work done. Pros
Cons
Squarespace pricing
What’s the difference between these plans?The Advanced plan includes flexible coupons, subscriptions, abandoned cart auto recovery, gift cards, and advanced shipping. Unless you want one of these features, you’ll be good with the Basic online store. There are also two other plans that aren’t aimed at ecommerce stores — Personal website for $12/month billed annually, and Business website for $18/month billed annually. With the Personal plan you can’t sell anything. With the Business plan you can, but you’ll pay a 3% transaction fee. If you’re doing more than $275 in sales each month, there’s no question between the two plans — you’d be paying in fees the difference in the price without unlocking any of the online store features like inventory, tax, coupons, and shipping labels. You can also upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. Unless you know you want one of the Advanced features, I’d start with the Basic online store and go from there. Squarespace templatesAll of them are beautiful. Let’s start there. To find one that fits your store, I’d start by sorting into Online Stores. You’ll see your options are narrowed to 11 templates. Then ask yourself:
I suggest you preview the theme and notice what it’s like to use the example layout. To be honest, your site is going to be at best like this one, so if there’s anything you don’t like, take note. It’ll likely annoy you even worse in your own store. Once you find a layout you like, click Start with “Theme Name.” You’ll create an account at this point. Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay yet — you have a 15-day free trial to customize the store and make sure it’s what you want. To make changes to the pages, you’ll need to make copies of the sample pages. The interface is minimal and soothing, but not very helpful. Just get in a meditative mindset and keep clicking to figure things out. There are a lot of tabbed sections, which I don’t love. But it’s not challenging. I wouldn’t call the builder drag-and-drop — it’s more of a module based style to build and go. You’ll get use to it the more time you spend with the system. Though, I’ve gotta say, if you’re using Squarespace, I suggest you take your cues from the design that’s ready-made. It’s one of the things you’re paying for. Wix
I really like the way Wix has used AI to automate the design decisions. It’s the exact opposite of the Weebly approach of making you pick a theme based on your first glance. If you already have some web presence — maybe in your Instagram or Facebook — Wix will take the work you’ve already done and create a website to match. You can also start from scratch. That’s one of the things I like most about Wix. It’s pretty much down to help you build your online store the way you want to: with help or without, from scratch or from a template, in the drag-and-drop builder or deep in the code. Pros
Cons
The biggest drawbacks for Wix are its store features. Some very basic things you’ll want to do if you’re actually shipping products may become very irritating. I’m talking things like attaching tracking numbers to orders or downloading your reports. If you’re making the choice on which ecommerce website builder to use simply on price, I implore you to stop using that as your methodology. There is a false logic at play. The $6 you’d save by choosing one website builder over the other will not be worth it when you’re wasting time trying to make the software do something it’s simply not built to do. Give the website builder you do select a thorough test run during your trial. This is the software you are using to run your business — don’t let a few bucks stand in the way of getting software that’ll really support you. Wix pricing
What’s the difference between these plans?
If you’re interested in learning how to make a Wix website for your online store, I have a whole tutorial on it, so I won’t repeat myself here. WordPress with WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a little bit different than the other ecommerce options we’ve looked at so far. It’s a self-hosted option, which is the more DIY version. A website builder like Shopify is like living in a hotel where everything is already included: there’s a coffee maker and coffee grinds, clean towels, and shampoo. If anything breaks you know you’ll have help. But it’s also more expensive and you have less control and ownership. You can’t take the towels from the hotel home with you, for example. With WooCommerce, you’ll build your own site on WordPress and use the free WooCommerce Storefront theme. It’s not a drag-and-drop website builder, but you can customize the look and feel. Pros
Cons
WooCommerce pricing
With WooCommerce you can get started for free. You’ll need to buy a domain name and set up web hosting. We have a how-to guide on all those steps here in How to Start a Blog. When you get to Step 6, choose a theme, you’ll choose the WooCommerce Storefront theme. There are a few different “child themes” to choose from — these change the look of the theme the way a new coat of paint changes the look of a room. Some child themes are free; others are $39. I recommend also checking out the WooCommerce extensions. Most sites will benefit from the customizer bundle. You may also need features like the pricing table, a contact section (yes, you definitely want this), and maybe a hamburger menu. Some extensions are free, others are paid. The price points are reasonable. Weebly
Weebly was bought by Square in 2018, and though Weebly is run as a separate business, it’s clear to me that Square is attempting to bolster it’s full-service suite of offerings for small businesses — with the cornerstone of that suite being in-person POS systems and payment processing. The drag-and-drop builder is intuitive, but the set-up and guidance isn’t all there for me. For the price point — $4/month less than Shopify — I don’t think it’s worth going with Weebly. Pros
Cons
If you’re launching an online store, you can skip right over the Starter and Pro plans — you’ll be pay a premium of 3% on every transaction and you’ll be limited in a lot of ways. You won’t be able to modify your cart, for example. For the price, I think you’ll get a better store from Shopify’s $29/month plan.
What’s the difference between these plans?
Weebly themesWhen you create a store, Weebly will ask what you’re selling and if it’s online or offline, or both. After just two questions, it’ll pop you into a store for you. This seems kind of curt, and it is. When you click customize your store, you’ll be able to choose a new theme. How will you decide? Weebly doesn’t make it easy — there’s a page of themes offered, but you can only sort them by the top-of-the-fold look and feel. Weebly pricingThe first few options are pretty and white. Take note of a few things:
Since there’s no filtering, your best hope is to choose one you think looks like your store should look. It’s pretty intuitive to add products and personalize your store. Keep checking back with the preview and you should do fine. In sum: How to choose the right ecommerce platform for your online storeFor an online store, you can’t go wrong with Shopify. It’s the industry leader, easily one of the best ecommerce website builders, and it’s well worth the price point. I like it a lot — particularly how much you can customize it with the app store. It’s got the analytics you need to run a real ecommerce shop. I also like the designs from Squarespace. They really do make it possible for a total beginner to create a professional looking site. The other contenders for all-in-one builders are Wix and Weebly. I found them to have limitations, so they’re not my top picks. I did like the Wix AI creator and the features it boasts for booking businesses and other speciality stores, like music or video creators. It’s worth checking out (there’s a free trial period) if one of those things intrigues you. I’ll keep tabs on Weebly. However, right now it doesn’t come close to competing with Shopify and Squarespace. If you want to run a WordPress site, then look into WooCommerce. You’ll find it is very familiar and has all the things that are great about any WordPress site: nearly limitless customization, great content management, excellent SEO, all subscription-free and open source. Granted, you’ll probably end up spending some on customizations and will need to throw down for your domain name and your web host. But if you’re the type that’s curious about building a self-hosted site, you already knew all that. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-ecommerce-website-builder/ When it comes to creating your own blog, you have two options: build a website to blog on or use one of the best blogging platforms as your website. Building your own website and blogging on it — this is probably the “traditional” way to build a blog. To do this, you’ll need to use blog software, like WordPress.org, or a website builder, like Wix. There are pros and cons to these: you’ll need to do a little more work at the outset and you’ll build your own audience from scratch, but you’ll own and control your site completely. The other option is to use a pre-existing blogging platform, like Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc. With a blog platform, you’ll be beholden to the platform’s choices, settings, changes, and algorithms, but you’ll also have access to a built-in audience and you can launch your blog in literal minutes. I’ll refer to these platforms as blog sites, as well. In this guide, I’ll break down both ways to set up your blog and help you pick which blog site, software, or platform is best for you. Let’s get to it.
How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform for YouTo point you in the right direction, I need to ask you two questions: one about money, the other about your blog niche. Do you plan to make money blogging?If so, go with WordPress or Wix. If you’re not trying to make money blogging, use one of the best blog sites instead.These blog sites are great if you aren’t trying to create an income: They have built-in audiences and you won’t have to pay anything. My recommendation of which one to choose is based on the outcome that you’re trying to achieve — what is your blog like and who do you hope will read it? In other words, what is your blog niche?
If you hadn’t thought about creating your blog on anything other than WordPress or with a website builder, it might be kind of hard to wrap your mind around these blog sites. I’m not saying they’re best for every blog — they’re really not directly monetizable with SEO, for example — but if your audience is already there, why try to get them to move to a website or blog they’ve never heard of. It’s easier for both you and your audience for you to blog on one of those sites. Pros and Cons of Blogging with WordPressIf you want to make money blogging, go with WordPress. There’s no better option. You’ll own your blog and website and you’ll have true flexibility. There is no argument here. It’s the default content option and runs 30% of the internet for a reason. There is more set-up that you’ll need to do on your own, like buy a hosting plan, for example. This is the only downside in my mind, but you don’t have to be an expert — we have step-by-step guides on How to Start a Blog and How to Make Money Blogging. (And an entire blogging section with ideas for keeping the momentum going, gaining readers, coming up with blogging ideas and other pro tips.) Pros and Cons of Creating a Wix BlogYou can also build your blog using Wix. It’s an all-in-one drag-and-drop website builder. It’s an easy option if you’re looking to have your blog on your own site, rather than on a blog platform or service like Medium or another form of social media. The downside is you’ll be paying a subscription fee and you’ll be locked into Wix’s themes and tools. So, you’ll trade some convenience for some flexibility. Pros and Cons of a Medium BlogMedium is the best all-around traditional blogging platform. It’s where the majority of readers who’re looking to read classic blog-style posts are right now. The downside is built into the choice of picking to create your own blog or build one an a platform — you won’t own the traffic and you won’t be able to do things like sell ad placements, for example.
Pros and Cons of Blogging on LinkedInIf you’re blogging about business, or something related, like management, then I’d say to build your blog on LinkedIn. There’s a pre-existing community of people there talking about those topics and ready to read your posts too. You’ll be able to build business followers, which is different than a “connection.” The audience on LinkedIn is premium: 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions: managers, VPs, Directors, and C-level. If you’re building thought leadership, brand value, or community, rather than trying to make money, I recommend going to where your audience is rather than trying to woo them over to where you are. Build content for them where they already are and they’ll love you for it. You’ll be able to build your network and your business opportunities, but like all blog platforms, the cons here are that you’re beholden to the algorithm and don’t own the site or the traffic. Pros and Cons of an Instagram “Blog”If you’re a creative — especially in a visual field, then your blog should really be an Instagram account. You can post images of your work and use the caption field for your written post. If you’re not used to this idea, it might seem kind of zany: That’s not a real blog. But it is. People read Instagram captions of the accounts they follow like they’d read a blog — and your visual work will be well highlighted in your feed and the general feed. The cons are self-explanatory: you’ll have to follow the Instagram format, and are subjected to the feed’s algorithm. It’s not impossible to monetize your Instagram feed, but you’ll be limited to those that you can feature in an image or caption. All of the monetization opportunities will need to be natively integrated Pros and Cons of Blogging on FacebookOf course, Facebook is the juggernaut in the room. It has the largest audience of any of these platforms. Creating a Facebook page might be all you need to build a blog — post on Facebook like you would on your blog and build your audience right there on your page. The comments and interaction on Facebook are even better than a traditional blog. You can really focus on building true fans on Facebook. The cons of Facebook have really been blasted through the media lately. There are privacy concerns, there’s the issue of an ever-changing and pretty secretive algorithm, and all of that. You probably already have an opinion of Facebook — let that inform your decision here.
In-Depth Reviews of the Best Blog Sites and PlatformsFirst, I’ll cover the best ways to build a blog on your own website. I’ll cover WordPress and Wix. If you’re going to use one of the top blog sites and you already know it, you can skip these first two reviews. Best Blogging Software and Best CMS — WordPressWordPress is the hands-down king of websites with content. It’s the default choice here for the best blogging platform overall. If you’re building a blog on your own site, that means you’re building with WordPress. (Quick Sprout is on WordPress.) To build your own site, you’ll need to buy a domain name, get web hosting, and set up your WordPress account. It’s all pretty simple. There’s more information on our post The Best Web Hosting for Small Business and on The Best Web Hosting for WordPress, which is about selecting a managed host that’s designed for WordPress. It’s more expensive but also super premium. If you have the coin, go for it. If you’re budget minded, you can skip it. You’ll pick a theme, apply it, and honestly you’ll be just about done. We have some recommendations on SEO WordPress plugins you’ll want to add. The backend of WordPress is pretty intuitive, and if you get lost there are so many tutorials out there to help. Like I said before, the choice between WordPress and Medium isn’t either/or. You can build your own blog and then use Medium selectively as a syndication tool. It’s worth thinking about if you want to grow your audience, but ultimately build your own site. Ready to build your own site with WordPress? We walk you through how in our posts How to Start a Blog and How to Make Money Blogging. How to Repost Your Blog on Medium
Pro Tips for Syndicating Your Blog on Medium
Best Website Builder for Blogging — WixI like Wix for blogging because it’s one-and-done. If you want to go the easy route for owning your own blog, this is it. It’s an easy runner up to WordPress for the best blog platform. The templates are great looking and you can customize them with a drag-and-drop editor. The blog manager is simple and intuitive, and you’ll get analytics and SEO built right in. It’s simple to add the basic features you might want on your blog: social tools, likes, comments, hashtags, categories, and a subscriber forms. All of the SEO features you need are easy to access too: alt tags for your images, internal links, SEO titles and descriptions (that are different from you post title), and nofollow tags for external links. Wix blogs have an automatic email subscribe feature and a social media bar beneath each article for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and more. To build a blog on Wix, you’ll sign into your account and pick a template. There’s a Blog template category, which is a great place to start. Once you have your template selected, I suggest updating the font, colors, and logo to personalize your template and help it stand out from the rest. Writing a post is as simple as clicking Create a Post, writing and adding images. You can save drafts, or even give other contributors writing privileges for you site. This is all just as easy from a mobile device as from a desktop — no app required. Make sure that you update your SEO settings for every post: this is what’s presented in the search results page and is critical for ranking in organic search. The resulting post will have an automatic read-time count, like a Medium post right next to the author’s name, which I also like a lot. I also like the ability to live-chat with your readers in the Wix app. If you build a real community in your blog or are open to answering reader questions in real time — say about an online course you’re offering or a webinar that’s coming up — then it’s a cool feature. Best Traditional Blogging Site — MediumIt’s hard to pin down how many users Medium has — they focus on sharing how much time is spent on the platform reading instead. I dig it. The platform, was founded by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams as a response to the hyper-short limits of Twitter, hence the name Medium. In 2017, Medium had 60 million unique visitors. From personal experience, I know that when I read on Medium, I read with curiosity and intent. I’m ready to put in some time reading, and the read times on each article get me to commit to sticking it out for the whole thing. Posting with Medium is super simple. There’s a clean, very white WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Basically, as you type, you see what the post will look like when it’s published. There are a lot of tips and tricks to format your post that are a little hidden in the simplicity of the interface. Don’t stop at this point though. Instead of just a profile, I recommend creating a Medium Publication. This gives you the option to add other writers and editors to your blog. More importantly, it gives you a lot more options for controlling what is essentially your blog homepage. Take a look below at the difference between Patagonia’s basic Medium profile (top image below) and REI’s Medium publication (bottom image below).
Above, a consecutive stream of your posts. This is all you’ll get with a Medium profile.
Pro Tips for Blogging on Medium
Best Blog Site for Business — LinkedInThere are 590 million LinkedIn users, 154 million of them in the US. And a lot of them are active: 44% are monthly active users. LinkedIn used to be basically a resume hosting platform. In a lot of ways it was like a job-hunting dating app: you’d go on if you were looking to hire or looking to get hired but not much else. In the last few years that has changed dramatically. If you’re building a business blog, the audience on LinkedIn is premium: 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions (managers, VPs, Directors, C-level). In an article for Forbes, “Is LinkedIn Poised To Be The Next Big Social Network … For Brands?”, Ryan Holmes nailed what’s great about the platform, “Hardcore LinkedIn users know that there’s a certain warm professionalism that underlies many exchanges on the platform. In short, LinkedIn offers a kind of stability, civility and real value that’s sorely needed on some social platforms.” I completely concur. The platform has a ready made culture and set of expectations that a business blogger would dream of creating on their own site. Why build it when it already exists?
Publishing doesn’t make you a LinkedIn Influencer, unfortunately. That’s a hand-selected group of people that rotates throughout the year “to include only the most engaged, prolific, and thoughtful contributors and to ensure that their expertise matches our members’ interests,” according to LinkedIn. An article isn’t a post and vice versa. A post is a smaller update you’d share with your feed and connections. Think quick anecdote or pro tip. They’re limited to 1,300 characters, which is about 5 lines. Articles are longer and more in-depth. They’re something that the broader LinkedIn audience would be interested in reading. A person who reads your article can also follow you from there, so they’ll be alerted when you publish your next article. Any articles you publish will appear in the Articles section of your LinkedIn profile. Pro Tips for Blogging on LinkedIn
Want to improve? Check out LinkedIn’s own course on getting better at blogging on the platform, Writing to be Heard on LinkedIn. Because when they own the platform, what’s good for them is successful content that people want to read and engage with! Best Blog Site for Creatives — InstagramInstagram is primarily visual — the feed is all the images or videos, and very little of the captions. You can use the caption field for your text, and users like a long caption. You’ll be capped at 2,200 characters or about 300 words. Instagram is perfect if what you’re sharing is visual: a lifestyle, art, dance. Or if there’s some way to share it visually like in a how to mini-video. In fact, in a lot of ways, Instagram has killed the entire genre of lifestyle blogging.
Instagram is so good now that it’s hard to want to go anywhere else. The downside is definitely that you’re beholden to the algorithm and the feed, and the changes the platform makes. On the flip side, you also don’t have to be the product manager, hire a developer, or build an audience from scratch. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons yourself! You can also host vlogs on Instagram Live — simply tap the camera icon (top left of the screen, or by swiping right from the Feed) and tap Live at the bottom. When you’re ready to actually go live, it’s as simple as tapping Go Live. You’ll be able to see the number of viewers you have at the top of the screen and comments will pop in at the bottom. When you’re done, tap End. From here, I recommend tapping Save to save it to your camera roll, and tapping Share to add it to your story. It’ll live there for 24 hours to be replayed by anyone who wasn’t around when it was actually live. Pro Tips for Instagram Blogs
You can only have one link in your profile, but with something like Linktree, you can add more links. I don’t think it’s a great idea to build a blog somewhere hoping to get your readers or followers to move from there to somewhere else on the regular. It’s feasible to get your Instagram followers to also subscribe to your newsletter, but it’s not really logical to hope they’ll leave Instagram after ever post and go read your blog. They’re scrolling through Instagram, not trying to read your website. Think about your own behavior here — how much momentum does it take to get you to follow a link that leads away from the platform you’re in? For me, it takes a lot of work. There has to be something I really want to buy, or really, really want to read. It’s more likely that I’ll follow someone on Instagram for a while and then one day I’ll buy something from that person, or follow them somewhere else. Instagram, and all blogging really, is about creating a relationship with the people who’re reading your posts. Once that relationship is strong enough, then people will be interested in going wherever you’re taking them. Until then, you’ll need to deliver on that relationship within the platform itself. Biggest Blog Audience — FacebookI mean, what’s 1.49 billion daily active users to you? It’s a huge number, and one that’s worth noting. How many of those active users will make it to your page or your post, now that’s another question. Organic reach on Facebook was once not such a wild aspiration, but in 2016 there was a huge decrease in organic reach. SocialFlow found that brands saw a 42% decline in organic reach over Q1 and Q2 2016. The easiest way to build a blog on Facebook is to create a group or a page for your business or brand. From there, your posts will literally be Facebook posts. To make it easier to post and handle all your interactions in one spot, I recommend using the Facebook Creator Studio. It’s an all-in-one dashboard for publishing and analyzing your content. If you’re new to Facebook and are really using it as a classic blog platform, you’ll want to create Notes. These are the closest things to blogs: a header image, a title, and text down the middle. From here you can also go live, post videos, gifs, polls, recommendations — any type of Facebook post you’ve seen you can create from this dashboard. You can even save, schedule, and backdate posts. Recap of the Best Blog Sites and Blog Platforms for 2019Best Blog Software and Best CMS — WordPress Best Website Builder for Blogging — Wix Best Traditional Blogging Platform — Medium Best Blog Site for Business — LinkedIn Best Blogging Site for Creatives — Instagram Largest Audience — Facebook via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-blogging-platforms/ Shared hosting is the most cost-effective way to host your website. So if you’re looking for the cheapest web hosting plans, look no further than shared hosting. The problem is that so many hosting providers out there offer shared web hosting services. Trying to find the best shared hosting service can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. That is, if you don’t know where to look. I’ve seen so many website owners just pick the first or the cheapest option they find. Then down the road, they end up running into problems with their website. You don’t want this to happen to you. That’s why I’ve taken the time to research and identify the best shared hosting plans on the market today. Whether you’re launching a new site from scratch or looking to change hosting providers, you can use this guide to find the best option for your new website.
Here’s a preview of the 8 best shared hosting plans on my list:
Now lets begin! What is shared web hosting?Since the majority of you are probably new website owners, let me take a moment to explain exactly what shared hosting is and how it works. With a shared hosting plan, your website will be hosted on the same server as other websites. This means that you’ll be sharing (hence the name) server resources with those other sites as well. That’s the reason why shared hosting is so cost-effective compared to VPS hosting or dedicated hosting plans. Shared hosting is like renting a bedroom in a house with other roommates. You have your own room, but you’re sharing supplies and resources in the house. If one of your roommates has a bunch of friends over and they eat all of the food or use all of the soap, there won’t be anything left for you. This is the major downside of shared hosting. If another site on the same server has tons of traffic, it can slow down the loading speed on your website. Shared hosting is an entry-level service offered by most web hosting providers. Who is shared hosting for?Shared hosting is best for new websites, small websites, bloggers, and small businesses. If your website is just a few pages and doesn’t require lots of on-site interaction, then shared hosting is the best option for you. It’s an ideal choice for websites that aren’t expecting large volumes of site traffic. Shared hosting is not scalable. So if you plan on doubling your traffic every month for the next six months until you reach 200,000 monthly visitors, you’ll need to find a VPS, dedicated server, or cloud hosting plan instead. While I mentioned the downsides associated with shared hosting, it’s not something that new or smaller sites should worry about. A small website can handle a little bit of downtime or slightly slower loading speeds once in a while in order to keep their web hostings costs down. Best shared hosting providers and plansThere are literally hundreds of different shared hosting plans available today. If you’ve already done a quick Google search, then I’m sure you’re aware of this. All of those plans are not created equally. Some are significantly better than others. If you need a shared hosting plan for your website, these are the providers you should be considering. BluehostBluehost stands out for its performance compared to other web hosting companies. They definitely don’t fall short of the competition in terms of uptimes and speed. Like most hosting providers, Bluehost offers a variety of plans, each with different features and price points. Although unlike most of the providers we’ve seen that offer just two or three plan options, Bluehost has four. Basic
Plus
Choice Plus
Pro
Overall, the Choice Plus plan is my best overall pick from these options. With a starting price point the same as Plus plan, it’s worth paying a few extra bucks per month when it comes time to renew. I can’t really justify the price jump for the Pro plan. You get extra spam protection and a dedicated IP. But if those are a priority for you, then you could get an upgraded plan elsewhere. Bluehost is a top choice for new or beginner websites that plan on scaling in the near future. They provide you with the ability to upgrade your plan as needed, with just a few clicks. So if your site is brand new and you’re not planning to prioritize traffic for a couple of years, then you can definitely get away with the Basic plan for the time being. Bluehost pricing is straightforward, but they will charge you for add-ons. To get the best possible rate, then you need to lock in your plan for 36 months. That’s another reason why I lean toward Choice Plus over the Plus and Basic packages. Even if you’re paying a little extra for resources that are going unused right now, it’s worth it for when your site eventually scales. It will only end up costing you an extra $30 per year to go with Choice Plus over Basic for the first three years. That’s a great price for a reliable shared hosting service. SiteGroundWhile shared hosting is typically for new or smaller websites, SiteGround is a great choice because it gives you room to scale. They offer three different shared plans, each offering more web space and the capacity to handle more monthly visitors. So you could start with their entry-level plan, and eventually upgrade as your site gains popularity. Here’s a brief overview of SiteGround’s three shared hosting plans: StartUp
GrowBig
GoGeek
If your website is brand new, you probably won’t be getting 10,000 monthly visitors for quite some time. But with that said, I’d still recommend the GrowBig plan over the StartUp option. The introductory rate is only $2 more per month, and it can accommodate more than double the monthly traffic for when your site eventually scales. Plus, the GrowBig plan comes with on-demand backups and a free site transfer. That’s an important feature for those of you who are switching from another hosting provider. The GoGeek plan is for small, simple websites that are expecting tons of website site traffic. I’m sure the majority of you won’t fall into this category, but I know there are a handful of you out there. GoGeek comes with three levels of super-caching, advanced priority support, white-label and client management services, and pre-installed Git. DreamHostSome of you are just looking for a cheap web hosting plan. DreamHost has cost-effective shared hosting, without sacrificing performance. DreamHost is shared hosting made simple. They only offer two plans that are both very straightforward. Shared Starter
Shared Unlimited
The Shared Starter plan is the best option for brand new websites. There is plenty of site storage and it comes with five subdomains. The biggest downside is that email accounts from your domain aren’t included, but you can add-on that option. I’d recommend the Shared Unlimited plan because it comes with added benefits like email, unlimited subdomains, and unlimited storage. Both plans come with WordPress pre-installed, a WP site builder, SSD storage, and a free SSL certificate. Bluehost guarantees a 100% uptime rate. If they fail to meet that promise, you’ll receive compensation for every hour of downtime, which is up to 10% of your next pre-paid renewal fee. They also offer a 97-day money-back guarantee. In my experience, 30 days seems to be the industry standard. So Bluehost really stands behind their product by tripling that period. For those of you who already have a WordPress site, the Bluehost experts will migrate the site to your new account for a $99 fee. If you fall into this category, I strongly recommend taking advantage of this service. InMotionFor those of you who prioritize customer support, InMotion Hosting will be a top option for you. Their rates fall in-between SiteGround and Dreamhost. However, the price jumps for InMotion’s renewal rates aren’t as drastic as the competition. So you won’t have to worry about paying triple price when it’s time to renew your plan. InMotion has three shared hosting plans for you to choose from. Launch
Power
Pro
All shared hosting plans also come with a free domain, marketing tools, and security suite. Unlike other plans we’ve seen so far, InMotion’s entry-level plan offers hosting for more than one website, unlimited disk space, and unlimited email. This is a great value for the price. The Launch plan is the best option for beginners. Power is made for small business websites, and the Pro plan is made for developers and growing businesses. Compared to some of the other providers on our list, InMotion really stands out when it comes to their customer support. This is definitely something to keep in mind as a new website owner. If you’re having trouble and neep help, it’s nice to know that their team is available for you 24/7. For those of you who decide to go with the Pro plan, you’ll get a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If InMotion fails to deliver on that promise, you’ll get credits toward free hosting. Speaking of credits, all InMotion shared hosting plans come with $150 in free advertising credits, which can be very useful for a new website. It’s a great way to gain some exposure through popular search engines. HostGatorHostGator is another cheap shared hosting option. But for a cost-effective hosting solution, they still offer great support. All HostGator shared plans come with unmetered bandwidth, unmetered storage, a free SSL certificate, and free domain. Pricing for each is:
Both the Baby and Business plan come with unlimited domains, while the Hatchling plan is for a single domain. The Business Plan comes with added benefits like a free dedicated IP, free SEO tools, and a free upgrade to Positive SSL. Overall, HostGator is a great value. The new customer rates are definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, but the renewal rates aren’t too expensive. Plus, you can lock in the introductory rate for three years. HostGator offers a $100 Google AdWords credit and a $100 Bing Ads credit for all shared hosting plans. If you’re considering HostGator, I’d recommend the Business Plan, even for beginners. It’s not often that I pick the top-tier pricing as the go-to plan for everyone. But with HostGator, I think that the value for that plan is the best. The add-ons that come with the Business Plan are worth the higher pricing. Ultimately, it’s still less than $15 per month, even after you renew. In addition to 24/7 server monitoring, 24/7 live chat and phone support, HostGator also has more than 500 video tutorials and nearly 700 help articles if you want to learn how to do things on your own. GoDaddyGoDaddy is another well-known name in the web hosting industry. They offer quality shared hosting plans at competitive rates. If you decide to go with GoDaddy for shared web hosting, your site will benefit from high uptime rates and fast loading times. Both of which are crucial components of web hosting. GoDaddy offers four shared hosting plans. Each one is made for different types of websites.
As you can see, all of the GoDaddy plans are affordable. There’s something for everyone on this list, and it’s very straightforward. If you’re starting a simple blog from scratch, you can get away with the Economy plan. For those of you who have a small business and expect heavy site traffic, you’ll be better off with the Ultimate plan. You always have the option to level-up if you need more resources. GoDaddy will actually send you an alert if you’re getting close to exceeding things like your memory or CPU. That way you can stay on top of things. A2 HostingA2 is another top option for shared hosting. They offer one of the fastest shared hosting services available on the market today. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their three shared hosting plans. A2 Hosting offers affordable pricing for all of their plans. The introductory rates rival some of the lowest we’ve seen in this guide. With that said, I’d go with the Swift plan at a minimum. While the Lite plan is the cheapest, you might as well upgrade to get unlimited databases, even if you’re not planning to take advantage of unlimited websites. Swift is less than $1 more per month when you first sign up, and only $2 more per month when you renew. That extra $24 per year is worth double the resources. For those of you who have a need for speed, the Turbo plan will be best for you. It’s probably the fastest shared hosting plan offered by any provider on our list. A2 is already known for its speed, and Turbo is their top of the line shared plan. While it ends up being $18.99 when you renew, it’s still cheaper than some of the other high-end plans we’ve looked at so far. Overall, A2 hosting is priced in the middle range compared to the competition. Furthermore, A2 Hosting offers free site migrations for their shared plans. If you recall, other providers charge an added fee for this service. They have excellent customer support as well, which is always a nice bonus. Overall, I can’t find much of anything bad to say about A2’s shared hosting plans. iPageUnlike other providers on our list that have multiple plan options, iPage offers just one plan for shared web hosting. It’s about as straightforward as it gets. Their plan costs $1.99 per month when you sign up, and $7.99 per month when you renew. Overall, this definitely puts them in the best cheap web hosting category. Even though they offer low prices, iPage has great features like:
That’s a lot of “frees” and “unlimiteds” for such a low-cost plan. Even though iPage advertises a free online store, PayPal integration, and other ecommerce features, I wouldn’t use them if you have an ecommerce site. Overall, iPage is best for smaller websites. Be aware, they do charge extras for things like site transfers, but that’s expected for a low-cost web host. ConclusionShared web hosting is the most popular option for new websites, blogs, and smaller websites. The vast majority of you will be more than satisfied with this type of web hosting. With that said, there are lots of plans out there to choose from. There are definitely options you can eliminate right away based on your needs, while others should jump out at you as a suitable choice. Here’s a recap of the best shared hosting plans on my list:
No matter what type of website you’re creating, I’m confident that you’ll find a the best hosting plan for your needs in this guide. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-shared-hosting/ I have a major disclaimer before we begin. A good part of my career has been working for some of the folks in this list. In fact, I was personally responsible for setting annual revenue goals and hitting those goals while I was the Senior Director of Growth and Product at I Will Teach You To Be Rich. In that case specifically, I’m extremely familiar with revenue totals and what drove that revenue. Not to mention the affiliate commissions that were paid out to some of the people on this list, numbers that were shared in confidence after a few too many drinks, and second-hand rumors that I picked up along the way.
Unfortunately, I’ve got sad news. I’m not going to share any of that insider knowledge. Sorry. Some folks don’t mind publishing their revenue numbers but others keep it extremely private. If I shared that kind of info on how their blogs make money, I’d shatter the trust they placed in me. I take that trust very seriously. For this post, I’m only going to be sharing revenue numbers that have been shared publicly. Now here’s what I can do for you. With the background that I have in this space, there are some common rules of thumb for figuring out revenue. They’re not perfect rules but they do tend to get the right number of digits. And after a while, you get a general sense for people’s revenue based on the size of their audience. For most folks on this list, I’ll give a guess based on their public audience size and any hints that they’ve released publicly about their revenue. I’ll clearly label at is as a guess and you should take it with a grain of salt. Ramit Sethi — I Will Teach You To Be RichRevenue = I can’t tell you If you poke around the site a bit, it’s pretty obvious that the blog makes most of its money from infoproducts. Ramit is absolutely at the top of his game when it comes to infoproducts and I consider this site one of the best to learn from if you’re considering monetizing your own blog with infoproducts. Make sure to sign up for his email list — you’ll start getting the launch funnels and you’ll be able to see how it all works. There are also a few products available for purchase from the products page. That’s a great source for inspiration to see what an amazing infoproduct sales page looks like. Marie Forleo — marieforleo.comRevenue = My guess is several million per year Marie has been blogging for a while now. She also put in a lot of work into her YouTube channel. He content has a great reputation and her copy is world class. I assume most of her revenue comes from infoproducts, particularly her flagship program B-School. It’s been a while since I followed Marie closely but for a period, she launched B-School once per year. She’s an amazing person to study if you want to learn how to produce high-quality positive content. She’s also brilliant at balancing valuable content with going for the sale in an authentic way. Steve Kamb — Nerd FitnessRevenue = Over $1 million per year According to this post, Steve’s doing over seven figures with his business. It’s a mix of infoproducts, coaching, and bootcamps. He also wrote a book called Level Up Your Life. What I love most about Steve’s business is how he’s chosen a specific segment of the market and differentiated himself from other fitness blogs. The fitness space is crazy competitive but by branding his entire business around fitness for nerds, he clearly separates himself from that competition. Even in the most competitive categories, there are still opportunities to target a niche with your blog and make real money with it. Amy Porterfield — amyporterfield.comRevenue = At least $2–3 million per year, maybe more Amy’s About page states that she’s built a multi-million dollar business, something that I absolutely believe based on her audience size. I’m assuming that the vast majority of her revenue is from her infoproducts, but it looks like she does some affiliate promotion too. Her affiliate page is pretty classy and well done. It’s a great example of how to promote products in an authentic and non-pushy way. Jon Morrow — Smart BloggerRevenue = Over $1.2 million per year In this post, Jon states that he’s doing over $100K per month in affiliate revenue which is pretty impressive. He also has several of infoproducts available for purchase on his site. I bet these do about $30–50K per year on their own. I’m not sure what Jon’s email funnels look like but if he’s pushing launch funnels aggressively, he could easily have another few million in revenue from infoproducts on top of his affiliate revenue. Darren Rowse — ProbloggerRevenue = My guess is about $10 million per year Problogger has been around since 2004. That’s an eternity in online marketing. It’s one of the original “how to blog” blogs. Darren also owns Digital Photography School which has 8X as much traffic and revenue as Problogger. Darren did do a income report on the first half of 2016. At that time, 46% of his revenue from both sites came from affiliates, 31% came from infoproducts, and the rest from a smattering of different categories. Seth Godin — seths.blogRevenue = My guess is over $2 million per year Seth Godin had plenty of success before his blog: he’s written 18 books, built and sold a company to Yahoo, and then was a VP at Yahoo. And his blog has cemented him as the leading marketing thought leader. If you were trying to come up with an ideal example of a thought leader, you’d have a hard time finding a better example than Seth Godin. Seth’s blog is the original, longest running, and possibly highest value blog in marketing. He’s posted every day for like 20 years or something. For a long time, he never montized it. Unless you consider featuring his books occasionally to count as monetization. Recently, he has done a few infoproducts including the altMBA and The Marketing Seminar. I went through The Marketing Seminar myself and quite a few people were in the community, so it sold well. Seth’s site says that over 5,000 people took the course in total. At $800 per sale, that’s about $4 million in total spread over several years. Plus all the revenue from altMBA. Neil Patel — neilpatel.comRevenue = I’m not even going to guess I worked for Neil when he was a co-founder of KISSmetrics. He’s the one that originally hired me. Also worked with him on some other projects after that. I’m not going to even hazard a revenue guess here since I don’t want to reveal anything that Neil would prefer to keep private. He has stated publicly that his main site, neilpatel.com, generates over 2.5 million visitors per month. I’ll let you figure out the revenue from there. Selena Soo — selenasoo.comRevenue = Over $1.6 million per year In this article, Selena reported that she made $1.6 million in 2017. I assume the majority of her revenue comes from infoproducts that she launches to her email list periodically. Considering the stage of her business, she’s built out a pretty impressive infoproduct portfolio along with some higher ticket mastermind offers. Sam Dogen — Financial SamuraiRevenue = My guess is about $1 million per year Sam gives a few hints on what he makes with his site. First, he does give the revenue of his infoproduct ebook which is $36,000 per year. Funny enough, he chooses not to include his Adsense revenue or affiliate revenue as “passive” income within any of his passive income reports. Most folks in the industry would consider these revenue sources to be passive. Sam does break down some hypothetical revenue amounts of blogs of different sizes here. One example includes a personal finance blog that’s generating about one million visitors per month. I remember Sam stating somewhere along the line that he has about that much traffic. The traffic estimation tools like Ahrefs also put his site in the range. So, the example that he gives should be close to his actuals. Using his projections as a guide and knowing that he has plenty of affiliate links along with Adsense on his site, a $1 million per year estimate should be close. Brian Dean — BacklinkoRevenue = Over $1 million per year He launches infoproducts to his email list a couple of times per year. I believe he has a course on SEO and one on YouTube. With his traffic volume, each of these launches should be doing upper six figures, possibly $1 million per launch. He has stated in a few interviews like this one that he’s doing seven figures per year. This is a great example of a business that’s focused really heavily on generating traffic, turning that traffic into email subscribers, then monetizing via a few infoproduct launches per year. It can seem magical to have a business with ridiculous profit margins at this stage. Most of us would love to have a $1 million per year business with a super small team and a handful of moving pieces. James Dahle — White Coat InvestorRevenue = Over $1 million per year James used to publish his annual revenue in his annual state of the blog posts but stopped as his blog became more well known. Here’s his 2019 state of the blog. His last reported income was $187,862 in 2014. He does mention multiple times that he’s now running a seven-figure business, so his current revenue is at least $1 million per year. He does have a book by the same name. Looking through his site, the majority of his revenue comes from affiliates, ads, and sponsorships. His email list is extremely small for the size of his blog — it’s only 21,725 subscribers. And with a small email list, any infoproduct launch is going to be limited to five figures. He does have an infoproduct on creating your own financial plan for $499. If he focused on conversion to email and got good at infoproducts, he could add another $1–2 million in revenue to his business. Tim Ferriss — tim.blogRevenue = My guess is about $10 million per year Tim has a massive blog that’s been around for a long time. He started it before he even launched his first book, The 4 Hour Workweek. Currently, I assume that the majority of Tim’s income comes from his podcast sponsorships. I have seen ads on his blog in the past but it doesn’t look like there are any right now. I don’t think he’s ever done an infoproduct or pursued affiliate ads aggressively. According to this form, his podcast sponsorships go for $36K per slot. At 4–5 slots per episode, that’s $144,000 per episode at least. Tim averages about six podcasts per month, which would produce $864,000 per month or $10,368,000 per year. The reason I’m not going to even guess is that I don’t have any experience buying or selling podcast sponsorships which I assume are his main source of income right now. Also, sites with Tim’s reach tend to start breaking standard revenue rules. Having one of the largest and highest rated podcasts can give you a lot of leverage, allowing you to charge more than normal on each sponsorship slot. Otherwise, Tim has used his blog to promote his books heavily over the years. They include The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans, and Tribe of Mentors. Timothy Sykes — timothysykes.comRevenue = Over $25 million per year Timothy has been around for a while now, predominantly selling infoproducts on how to invest in penny stocks. According to this interview with Nathan Latka, Timothy was on track to do $25–27 million in revenue in 2016, $20 million of which came from infoproducts. Timothy is a great person to follow if you want to see how an infoproduct business looks at scale. Josh Axe — Dr. AxeRevenue = Did $11 million per year in 2015, could be as high as $50–70 million per year now Dr. Axe is a massive site with a huge audience. According to this press release, it has 17 million visitors per month, which is insane. They also push products pretty hard via their email list. It’s obvious that they know what their doing. Their revenue is a mix of infoproducts, affiliates, and supplements. Supplements are a great category with nice margins. I only have a little experience in the health and fitness category but the advice I always get from the health and fitness experts is to go hard on supplements. I did hear that they have a solid paid marketing engine going for their funnels. If that’s true, they could be doing easily $50–70 million per year by now. I consider Dr. Axe to be a great example of what a health and fitness blog looks like when taken to its absolute height. If you’re considering a health and fitness blog, I’d study Dr. Axe closely Peter Adeney — Mr. Money MustacheRevenue = About $400,000 per year According to this article from the New Yorker, Peter pulled in about $400,000 per year as of 2016. Ahrefs reports that Peter’s traffic has been static since the 2016 period. If that’s true, I would expect his current revenue to be around $400,000. Sounds like the majority of the revenue, possibly even all of it, comes from affiliates. AJ Harbinger and Johnny Dzubak — Art of CharmRevenue = My guess is $5–10 million per year Jordan Harbinger didn’t reveal exact revenue but did say that it’s multiple seven figures per year. Based on the fact that the revenue is mostly infoproducts and the overall size of the audience, my guess is that Art of Charm does $5–10 million per year in revenue. In 2018, Jordan Harbinger split from the Art of Charm and started his own podcast. Pat Flynn — Smart Passive IncomeRevenue = $2,171,652 per year Pat Flynn posts all his income reports here, going back all the way to 2008. Not sure if Pat decided to stop but it doesn’t look like he’s posted any new income reports since 2017. Regardless, I highly recommend reading through the first few years of income reports from Pat. That’ll give you a strong sense for what it takes to start making money with a blog. The majority of Pat’s revenue comes from affiliate offers and his own infoproducts, about 50/50 between the two. He also has a few books published, How to Be Better at Almost Everything and Will it Fly? Other than the months he received the advance from the publisher, I bet these books have a negligible direct impact on revenue. John Lee Dumas — Entrepreneur on FireRevenue = $2,029,744 per year No one really needs to guess at John Lee Dumas’ revenue, he posts monthly income reports directly to his site.
Sponsorships are slightly larger than everything else. Otherwise a pretty even split between infoproducts, affiliates, and his journals (The Freedom Journal, The Mastery Journal, and The Podcast Journal). To get a sense for how blogs really make money, I highly recommend you read through the monthly income reports from the last 12 months for Entrepreneur on Fire. You’ll get an excellent feel for what a seven-figure blog looks like. I also recommend you read through the income reports from 2012 and 2013, which will show you what revenue looks like at the beginning and how it changes over time on the path to $1 million per year. Navid Moazzez — navidmoazzez.comRevenue = My guess is $300–500K per year Navid is in the online marketing space and offers infoproducts on virtual summits. According to his About page, he’s earned over a $1 million dollars in “a few years.” Safe to say he’s easily doing six figures off his blog. Hence my guess above. Tim Urban — Wait But WhyRevenue = At least $100,000, possibly $1+ million per year Tim Urban got crazy popular and his blog posts were being shared all over the place for a while. This is probably an example of what most people dream of when they start a blog. They plan to write a bunch of stuff, a rabid fan base will appear out of nowhere, they’ll offer some t-shirts, posters, and a Patreon account to make tons of passive income. They’ll finish by riding into the sunset of eternal blogging glory. For Tim Urban, that’s basically what happened. And he absolutely deserves it. His content is phenomenal. It’s so good that people have been angry because he hasn’t posted in a while. Very few of us can write content that good. I can promise you no one gets upset when I stop blogging. So for us mortals, we should look to some of the other examples on this list for how to monetize our blogs. I know that I gave a really broad range on the revenue here. Blogs like this are really tough to guess. Tim clearly has a massive, adoring audience. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s swimming in gold. Although he might be. Blogs with massive audiences like this sometimes make a ton of money, and sometimes they make very little. It also looks like his main source of revenue is his ecommerce store. Unlike consulting, speaking, infoproducts, or affiliates, the margins on ecommerce products are much smaller. It’s entirely possible that he’s making a ton of top-line revenue but only enough profit to live a decent lifestyle. That’s pretty common with ecommerce entrepreneurs. They claim that they’re making millions of dollars with their business but only take home $50–100K per year. Once you factor in costs of goods sold and overhead, there isn’t a ton left over. I have no idea if Tim Urban falls into this bucket. I simply don’t know. Noah Kagan — OkDork, Sumo, and AppSumoRevenue: $10M last year and growing Noah’s business is based around four complimentary sites:
This system of related businesses is one of his tips for growing a successful business. He thinks of these businesses like a pyramid — KingSumo helps grow your business with giveaways, Sumo (which is the core product) arms those businesses with the tools they need for marketing, and BriefcaseHQ and AppSumo provide the rest of the tools. Creating a system of interlocking tools means you don’t need to find new customers; you can simply market to the customers you already have. This reminds me of Target adding in groceries. They increased their revenue by asking, What are our existing customers buying that they aren’t buying from us? What do they need that I could sell them? Noah has an even better analogy: it’s like buying another book from an author you already love. If you love a book an author’s written, of course you’re going to but their next book and their next book. He’s also got a lot of thoughts on setting the right pricing structure, leveraging recurring revenue, and bundling that’s all worth studying as well. Shane Parrish — Farnam StreetRevenue: It’s all been reinvested into the business, plus speaker fees Shane started his blog to track his own personal learning and development — he didn’t have any grand ambitions for the project, and the original url, 68131.blogger.com, shows it. Today his newsletter has 200,000 subscribers and Farnam Street gets 1M pageviews a month. How does he make money? Well, “earn money” vs. “make money” is a good distinction here. Shane says he’s reinvested most of the money back into the business, “In 2014, I think we actually lost money. In 2015, we didn’t lose money, which was good. … I will say that I’ve never actually personally made a penny off Farnam Street. It’s all been reinvested back into content, experience, trying new things, and that’s the way that hopefully I foresee the future.” He makes money in a variety of ways: he first paid his expenses with Amazon affiliate links, then in 2014 he started his first 9-month partnership deal, newsletter sponsorships, conferences, speaker fees, infoproducts, a podcast, a forthcoming book, and a membership plan for his site that you can choose what you pay, currently either $149 or $249. His model is based on providing free content to many and creating a base of super fans who’ll pay for more of that content, subsidize the free content to give back, and gain access to even more: a book club, a discussion group, and private Ask Me Anythings. If 5% of his 200,000 newsletter subscribers convert (that’d be 10,000 members), and each of them signed up at the $149 level, that’d be $1.5M a year. Shane regularly turns down speaking engagements for $20,000 because it’s not how he wants to make money, and he doesn’t optimize his in-person workshops for revenue. He’s always asking what’s in the best interest of the business. That means the bulk of the revenue comes from memberships. I agree with his advice: “The audience will grow if you put out good content.” And, “I know how easy it is for people to copy our content and even our business model. So that drives a lot of what we do. We want to do things that are hard to copy and that means we can’t cherry-pick what’s easy, because there is a lot of competition in easy.” Ready to build you own blog that makes money?I know the list above is full of people making serious money. Here’s the crazy part. For every blogger making a million dollars, there are thousands that make enough money to quit their job and work on their blog full time. The list is too long to keep track of — I wouldn’t be able to put it together. It is absolutely reasonable to start a blog with the goal of quitting your job and being your own boss. So many people have already done it you’d be walking a well-traveled path at this point. I also believe that there’s still a ton of opportunity to be made blogging. I see new up-and-coming bloggers every year. It’s still possible to start a blog today and have it support you. I put together a 12-step guide on how to start a blog here. It’ll walk you through the whole process. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/make-money-blogging/ Website hosting comes in all different shapes and sizes. Every website in existence needs to be hosted somewhere, so this makes sense. If you’re a developer or have a web development agency, all of your clients need to have a suitable web hosting service. You can build web hosting costs into your existing client packages with reseller hosting plans. Reseller hosting is great because the barrier to entry is far less complex than starting your own web hosting company from scratch. You won’t need to worry about the hardware, resources, or other expensive costs associated with managing servers and hosting facilities. It’s a smart way for developers and agencies to earn some extra money from their existing clients.
What is reseller hosting?Some of you may not have any experience with reseller hosting. So before we go any further, I want to make sure that we’re on the same page. In a nutshell, reseller hosting makes it possible for you to sell web hosting to other people. It’s essentially white label website hosting. You buy the service from a larger hosting company, and then resell that service to your clients. The reseller focuses on marketing and sales while leaving all of the heavy-lifting to the larger hosting service. With reseller hosting, you set the hosting prices for your clients. As long as the provider gets their monthly rate, the sky is the limit for what you can charge. Since you’ll be paying wholesale rates to the hosting company, there’s an opportunity for you to make substantial profit margins. It may sound confusing at first, but it’s really not that complicated. Here’s a simple visual representation of how reseller hosting works. If you pitch it correctly, your clients will love this option. You become a one-stop-shop for their website. You’re already handling things like development and design, so why not handle the hosting as well? Who is reseller hosting for?Reseller hosting is not for everyone. If you’re launching a website from scratch, or you’re just looking for a new web hosting provider, reseller hosting is not for you. For the most part, reseller hosting is for web developers, web designers, and agencies. However, if you’re an entrepreneur in the tech space, you might see an opportunity here to earn some extra money as a reseller. For example, if you own a local computer shop, you could potentially start reselling hosting packages to customers in your community. Whether you’re a solo developer, large enterprise, or anywhere in-between, reseller hosting is only suitable for you if you’re planning to manage at least 10 websites or more. Anything less than that won’t really be worth your time or effort. Aside from the additional profits you can make from your current client packages, reseller hosting is a great way to retain your customers for the long term. If you develop and design a website for someone, they won’t need your services forever. But if you can simultaneously manage their hosting service, then you’ll continue to get recurring income long after the development is complete. Best reseller hosting providers and plansNow that you’re ready to proceed with reseller hosting, it’s time to find a service provider and hosting plan that meets your needs. Reseller hosting plans vary by price, features, and benefits. A local business planning to manage 10 websites won’t need the same plan as an agency managing 100 sites. With that in mind, I’ve narrowed down the best reseller hosting plans for every scenario. If you want to be a reseller, there’s a plan for you on this list. HostGatorHostGator is an industry leader in the web hosting space. Like the rest of their web hosting services, HostGator’s reseller options are great. They offer three different reseller plans. As you can see, the price points for all three are within $5 of each other. But you need to understand that this is just a promotional rate for new customers. The plans renew at $29.95, $41.95, and $59.95, respectively. But you can lock in this introductory rate for your first 36 months. All reseller plans come with great benefits like:
The biggest difference in the packages is the disk space and bandwidth. So the plan you choose will depend on how many sites you plan to manage, and how much traffic and storage those websites need. Fortunately, HostGator makes it easy for you to scale. If you start with the Aluminum or Copper plan, you can upgrade for free at any time. All reseller plans come with free WHMCS billing software, which makes it easy for you to manage your clients. You’ll also get WHM control panel for monitoring your server status, and setting limits for things like disk space and bandwidth for your clients. If you’re already a reseller and want to switch providers, HostGator offers up to 80% off transfers and registrations. HostGator guarantees a 99.9% uptime rate. So you won’t have to worry about your clients being upset with the performance of their website. Another reason why I recommend HostGator for reseller hosting is because of their support. They offer 24/7 customer service via phone and live chat. Automatic weekly backups and 24/7 server monitoring are standard as well. Plus, you’ll get a 45-day money-back guarantee, which is more than enough time to see if you’re satisfied with your plan. SiteGroundSiteGround is another big player in the web hosting industry. So it’s no surprise that they offer excellent reseller hosting plans. Pricing for the SiteGround reseller program is a bit different from HostGator. They charge you based on how many accounts you’re managing. You’ll get volume discounts for buying in bulk. So the more accounts you manage, the cheaper it is per account. Here’s how it works. SiteGround sells “reseller credits.” Each credit is worth one year of hosting for a website.
You need to buy a minimum of five credits to get started initially. Credits never expire, so you can use them to add or renew accounts at any time. Let’s break those costs down even further to give you a better understanding of what you’re paying compared to other reseller plans. If you start with the minimum and buy 5 credits at $45 each, it’s going to cost you $225 per year. That ends up being $18.75 per month. That’s just $3.75 per client, per month, assuming you have at leave five clients. Each website hosted on your reseller plan will get 10 GB of disk space, and has the capacity to handle roughly 10,000 monthly visitors. These specifications make SiteGround a top choice for resellers with clients that don’t have a ton of website traffic. If you’re a small agency and only have a handful of websites to manage, SiteGround’s credit pricing system makes it possible for you to become a reseller. InMotion HostingUnlike other web hosting providers that offer three or four reseller hosting plans, InMotion Hosting has six! So if you like to have options, it’s safe to say that InMotion has plenty. Here’s a breakdown of what each reseller plan offers. The “R” packages are shared hosting plans, and the “VPS” packages are virtual private servers. Things like disk space, monthly bandwidth, and dedicated IPs increase with each plan. Pricing for the InMotion Hosting reseller plans are as follows:
How does this compare to other hosting providers we’ve reviewed so far? Let’s take a look. HostGator’s top package offers 140 GB of disk space and 1400 GB of bandwidth. The R-2000S and R-3000S from InMotion would be the closest plans to this. Both of these are at similar price points as well. The biggest difference is that InMotion doesn’t stop there. Their top VPS plan has 260 GB of disk space and 6 TB of bandwidth per month. Essentially, this means that InMotion’s reseller plans can handle more clients and more monthly traffic than the other options on our list. They offer beginner reseller plans like the R-1000S, advanced plans like the VPS 3000, and still, have four other plans in-between. With a VPS reseller plan, you can even manage ecommerce websites. You’ll have root access as well to make custom changes to your server. InMotion offers free billing software, free cPanel and WHM, free SSD drives, white label services, DDoS and malware protection, and server management features for select packages. They also have a 90-day money-back guarantee, which is almost unheard of in the web hosting space. Overall, InMotion Hosting has a reseller plan for everyone. But it’s definitely a top choice for resellers who are managing lots of clients. A2 HostingA2 Hosting has a reputation for speed and reliability. Both of which are crucial in the web hosting industry. Their reseller choices are great for those of you who want a quality service in a low-to-mid price range. Here’s an overview of A2’s reseller hosting plans. With plans starting as low as $9.80 per month, A2 Hosting is definitely cost-effective. However, I would not recommend the Bronze package. It only has 30 GB of storage, which isn’t nearly enough if you’re planning to have more than a few clients. Plus, it’s their only plan that doesn’t come with Free WHMCS, which is crucial for client management. You can buy the WHMCS add-on for $10 per month, but at that point, you might as well upgrade to a package that includes it for free. While we’re on the subject, the free WHMCS starter package for the Silver, Gold, and Platinum plans is suitable for up to 250 clients. So you definitely have the opportunity to scale. At a minimum, I’d recommend starting with the Gold plan. You get double the disk space (compared to Silver) for less than $10 more per month of the renewal rate. For me, that’s a no-brainer. A2 Hosting is committed to a 99.9% uptime rate. Their servers are up to 20 times faster than their competitors, and they have an amazing customer support system. GreenGeeksGreenGeeks isn’t as well known as some of the other hosting providers on our list. They’ve been in business for 11 years, and offer eco-friendly web hosting solutions. Reseller hosting is a service that they specialize in. GreekGeeks has five different reseller plans, which are all very straightforward. Their packages can be purchased in quantities of 10 clients. The more clients you have, the more cost-effective it is per account. If you fall somewhere in the middle of these tiers or have more than 50 clients, you can purchase additional accounts in bundles of 5. The discounted pricing for additional accounts is:
For example, if you have the Reseller 50 plan and need to add 13 new accounts, it would cost you an additional $30 per month (you would have to buy 15 more accounts). All GreenGeeks reseller plans come with great benefits like:
Plus, GreenGeeks uses renewable energy to power their hosting services. So it’s a great option for those of you who are conscious of the environment and want to market green web hosting to your clients. This reseller service is made with developers in mind. You’ll get multiple PHP versions, MySQL databases, FTP accounts, support for Perl and Python, and access to the latest developer tools like WP-CLI, Git, Drush, and lots more. All GreekGeeks reseller plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. It’s definitely nice to have that assurance to fall back on. GoDaddyGoDaddy is best known for its domain registrar services. But they’re also a reputable web hosting provider and have great options for reseller hosting. They have four reseller plans to choose from. Enhance
Grow
Expand
Established
To get the prices listed above, you need to commit to 36 months. Unlike other hosting providers, GoDaddy doesn’t advertise a more expensive renewal rate when your contract expires. Although they do have a disclaimer stating that renewal rates are subject to change. So I guess we’ll see what happens in three years. All reseller plans include WHMCS and cPannel for up to 250 accounts. They offer unmetered bandwidth, free SSL certificate, and 24/7 customer support. In addition to hosting services, you can also sell GoDaddy domains and other third-party products with the reseller plans listed above. ConclusionReseller hosting is a great way for developers, agencies, and entrepreneurs to earn recurring revenue with white label web hosting. There are so many different reseller hosting providers and plans available on the market today. Rather than sifting through all of those options on your own, I took the time to research and identify the best choices. So which reseller hosting plan is the best? It depends on what you’re looking for. He’s a quick summary of the plans above:
If I was forced to pick a best overall reseller hosting plan from this list, it would probably be InMotion Hosting. Their VPS plans really give you the opportunity to scale a larger client list with high volumes of monthly traffic. But with that said, not everyone is looking to pay a premium price for top-of-line features. That’s why I made sure to include a reseller hosting plan for as many different scenarios as possible in this guide. I’m confident you’ll find what you’re looking for on my list. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-reseller-hosting-plans/ Choosing a web hosting provider is a crucial step for website owners. Your hosting service and plan will have a major impact on the performance of your website. But with so many options to choose from, this process can feel like an extremely daunting task. The first thing you need to do is determine the type of hosting service that you’re looking for. Since you’ve landed on this page, I think it’s safe to assume that you’ve already taken care of this first step. You decided that you want a dedicated server, instead of a shared, VPS, or cloud hosting plan. That’s great! But now what?
All dedicated server plans are not created equally. But with that said, every website has unique needs as well. The best dedicated server plan for one website, might not be the best option for you. That was my inspiration for creating this guide. The truth is, there are lots of amazing dedicated server plans out there. It would be irresponsible and impractical for me to name just one as the best. Instead, I’ve narrowed down the best dedicated servers with every type of website in mind. So no matter what you’re looking for, I’m confident you can find it on this list. What is dedicated hosting?As the name implies, dedicated hosting plans provide a dedicated server to a single client. This means that you won’t be sharing your server resources with other websites. You don’t get this benefit with a shared, VPS, or cloud hosting plan. Dedicated servers are essentially the top of the line in web hosting. Since you won’t be sharing resources like RAM, CPU output, and bandwidth, you can expect superior performance on your website. Who is dedicated hosting for?Dedicated servers are not for everyone. So before you proceed and buy one of these plans, make sure that you’re in the right place. A dedicated hosting plan is ideal for larger organizations or websites with high volumes of traffic. If you own a local restaurant or small business with just a few thousand visitors per month, you don’t need a dedicated server. However, if your website has upwards of 50,000 or 100,000+ visitors per month, you should consider a dedicated hosting plan. Dedicated servers make it easy for you to scale your website as well. Traffic alone isn’t the only factor that should be taken into consideration. There are other types of services, such as cloud hosting, that can accommodate scalable site traffic. Dedicated hosting plans are for businesses that want complete customization and flexibility of their server functions. That’s why large ecommerce businesses and enterprises typically choose a dedicated server. Websites that require strict security, such as ones that involve medical data or financial information should be using a dedicated server. Finally, dedicated servers are for websites that can afford it. While most of you can find some great cost-effective options, there are dedicated plans out there starting at $1,000 or $2,000 per month. Best dedicated server providers and hosting plansNow that you have a better understanding of dedicated hosting, it’s time to dive into the best plans on the market today. We always keep this list refreshed, so you can be sure that the information is accurate and up to date. BluehostBluehost is an industry leader in web hosting. Their dedicated hosting plans are some of the most cost-effective options that you’ll find. Other providers may offer cheaper hosting, but Bluehost gives you the best value while still providing exceptional service. There are three dedicated server plans for you to choose from. Here are some of the highlights of each one: Standard Plan
Enhanced Plan
Premium Plan
The best plan for your website will depend on the resources that you’re looking for. I think that the standard or enhanced plan will be more than enough for most websites that need a cost-effective dedicated server. All dedicated hosting plans from Bluehost come with a free SSL certificate, free domain for one year, and 24/7 customer support. For those of you who are more advanced and want to make custom installations to your server, Bluehost gives you full root access as well. I doubt you’ll need it, but Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you can always back out in the first month if you change your mind. SiteGroundIn addition to the quality and reliability of their server features, SiteGround makes our list because they have exceptional customer support. Not only is their customer support quick to respond to inquiries, but they are also highly knowledgeable. This makes it ideal for relatively smaller sites that want to transition to a dedicated server. Easy access to friendly support is crucial during this process. There are three dedicated server plans for you to choose from: Entry Server
Power Server
Super Power Server
All dedicated hosting plans from SiteGround are fully managed. They set up your server, keep its software up to date, and monitor the server 24/7. If any issues arise, they’ll be able to react instantly. While the Entry Server isn’t cheap, it still offers a good amount of bandwidth, RAM, and speed for an entry-level plan. The storage is a bit on the low side, which makes the Power Server my top pick of the three. With the Super Power Server priced at more than double the monthly rate of the Power Server, it’s not likely that most websites will need that much storage. HostGatorHostGator is arguably the most well-known web hosting provider on the market today. They have exceptional uptime rates, also making them one of the most reliable web hosts you can choose. However, their loading speeds fall a bit short of industry averages. With that said, the dedicated server plans offered by HostGator are definitely ones that you should take into consideration, especially if you’re looking for a more affordable option.
If you compare that to the other plans we’ve looked at so far, HostGator is priced just slightly above Bluehost, but significantly lower than SiteGround. So for those of you who are looking for a dedicated server in that low-to-mid price range, HostGator fits the bill. The HostGator dedicated server plans offer 8 GB, 16 GB, and 30 GB of RAM, respectively. If you compare that to the other plans we’ve reviewed, it’s a great value for the price. HostGator has unmetered bandwidth for all dedicated servers, which is another added bonus. Overall, if you want a dedicated server that’s a step above the lower pricing tiers while still delivering exceptional uptime and quality customer support, HostGator has you covered. A2 HostingA2 Hosting isn’t as well known as some of the other web hosting providers on our list. But they still offer some of the best dedicated servers on the market today. If you want blazing fast speed, look no further than A2 Hosting. In addition to the great performance of their hardware, A2 Hosting has a wide range of hosting options for you to choose from. This can’t be said for every other provider out there. Here’s an overview of the pricing, features, and benefits of their dedicated hosting plans. As you can see, A2 Hosting has a dedicated server plan for everyone. They offer unmanaged hosting and fully managed hosting options at an affordable rate. Their Core Flex Server is fully managed and still provides root access to website owners who want that added level of customization. I always like to recommend products and services from companies that stand behind what they’re selling. That’s why it’s always nice to see a web hosting providers offer something like a 30-day money-back guarantee. A2 Hosting takes that promise to an entirely new level with their anytime money-back guarantee. Now, there are definitely some stipulations here. I’m sure you can’t use the service for a year and then call and ask for a refund. According to their site, accounts canceled within 30 days of use will get a full refund. Accounts canceled after 30 days will be refunded a prorated amount of the unused service. There are even stipulations about how refunds will be issued for requests after 120 days. While I’m not anticipating that you’ll want to cancel your plan, it’s nice to know that it’s an option and you’re not locked in if you’re unhappy. Overall, A2 Hosting offers competitive pricing, service, support, and performance for their dedicated servers. Media TempleAs I said earlier, dedicated hosting plans are not for everyone. With that said, Media Temple is not even for everyone who knows they want a dedicated server. With plans starting at $2,000 per month, Media Temple dedicated hosting plans are made specifically for enterprise-level hosting. So even if your small business website generates tons of monthly traffic, you should look elsewhere for a dedicated server. Media Temple offers both managed hosting and self-managed hosting plans, depending on how much control you want over your servers. With a whopping 128 GB of RAM, you’ll be able to run complex tasks on your site. Dynamic content, CMS, and high volumes of traffic won’t slow you down. These dedicated server plans are best for enterprises who plan on reselling. You’ll have enough power and control to rent space your clients on one server. If you want to save some money, Media Temple offers discounted rates for long-term contracts. Annual plans start at $20,000, which is essentially two months free compared to the month-to-month rate. Two-year contacts and three-year contracts are priced at $38,000 and $54,000, respectively. Again, these dedicated servers are not for everyone. But for those of you who have agencies and plan to resell your server space, this will be your best choice. Liquid WebLiquid Web is another lesser-known web hosting provider. But their servers, performance, and support earn them a top spot on our list. Pricing for these hosting plans falls within the same range as SiteGround. So it’s a great choice for those of you who are looking for a higher-end plan, without breaking the bank on unnecessary features. Here’s an overview of the dedicated hosting plans offered by Liquid Web. Intel Xeon 1230 v6
Intel Xeon Silver 4108
Intel Xeon Gold 6130
As you can see, there isn’t an upgrade in terms of storage or bandwidth from the Silver to Gold server plans. The biggest difference is that the Gold server has 16 cores, while the Silver server only has 8. The Gold server can be used for big databases, large SaaS companies, and virtualization on your website. If you’re going to use Liquid Web for dedicated hosting, I strongly recommend that you take advantage of their bundle pricing. Take a look at the value bundles and compare it to the specs that I’ve listed above. As you can see, you get significant upgrades without spending too much more money. The value packs include all of the recommended add-ons at a more reasonable price than purchasing them individually. So if you were willing to spend the $499 on the Gold package, you can double the RAM and bandwidth for just another $50 per month. It’s well worth it. All Liquid Web dedicated servers include:
Another great benefit of Liquid Web is their transparency. Plans are month-to-month and rates won’t increase upon renewal. Best Cheap Dedicated Hosting PlansThere are a few more cost-effective hosting plans that are worth considering if you’re looking for a great rate. While these options are suitable, they each fall short in certain areas, which is why I grouped them in a category of their own. AccuWeb HostingThe dedicated hosting plans offered by AccuWeb start at just $90 per month, which is a great rate for a quality service. You’ll get a server in a location that’s close to where you are based. AccuWeb has servers located in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UK, and other areas throughout the globe. For those of you who like lots of options, AccuWeb has the most dedicated server choices on our list, by far. There are six different single-processor dedicated servers that you can configure, and nine dual-processor dedicated servers. That’s 15 different options! While pricing for some of these configurations starts at more than $300 per month, the entry-level server pricing at just $90 per month is best for those of you looking at low-cost options in this category. I consider AccuWeb Hosting a “cheap” dedicated server because their uptimes and loading speeds are inconsistent. So you’ll have to weigh the cost compared to the performance when making your decision. HostwindsFounded in 2010, Hostwinds is another lesser-known option on the market. They have dedicated server plans starting at just $79.50 per month as an introductory offer. I like Hostwinds because their dedicated server plans are super easy to customize. Directly on their website, you can configure things like:
All dedicated servers are fully managed, have nightly backups, and 24/7 server monitoring. Similar to AccuWeb, Hostwinds doesn’t have the best uptime and loading speeds. But with that said, it’s still a suitable option to consider for low-cost dedicated hosting. GoDaddySome of you might be surprised to see GoDaddy in the cheap dedicated hosting section of this guide. They are one of the most well-known and reputable companies in web-hosting. I should clarify — GoDaddy is only “cheap” when you take advantage of their introductory offers. Their entry-level economy plan starts at just $89.99 per month, but nearly doubles when it’s time to renew. Here’s a snapshot view of GoDaddy’s dedicated hosting plans. GoDaddy has great features for the price, high uptime rates, and fast loading times. When it comes to performance, GoDaddy is right up there with the best in the business. However, I found that GoDaddy falls short when it comes to customer support. It’s a bit inconsistent, which isn’t what you want if you need help in a pinch. There have been instances where it’s taken me 15-30 minutes to get in touch with a support agent, which is long considering that some of their competitors respond in less than 2 minutes. But if that’s not a deal-breaker for you, GoDaddy is definitely a top choice for a cost-effective dedicating hosting plan. ConclusionWhen it comes to dedicated servers, there is no shortage of options to choose from. But rather than scouring the web and searching through dozens of hosting providers, I’m confident that you can find what you’re looking for in this guide. So what’s the best dedicated hosting plan? It depends on what you’re looking for. My guide has something for everyone. What’s best for you might not be best for everyone else. Here’s a quick summary of the best plans to point you in the right direction.
At the end of the day, the decision is yours. You’ll need to compare the plans to determine what’s the best value for the features your website needs. via Quick Sprout https://www.quicksprout.com/best-dedicated-hosting-plans/ |
Sean BrianWhile radishes deter certain insects naturally, they require similar growing conditions as carrots. Although the crops both have roots, radishes grow and germinate quicker, allowing carrots to continue growing in the soil space available when the radishes are harvested, Archives
April 2023
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