If your looking to spread around your sites for web hosting, but have a limited budget then you may want to consider SEO hosting.  I’ve been checking around myself for some better options, but the way some hosting companies price their multiple c-class  hosting packages it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.  They price each additional IP at something like $5 per month.  That’s barely less than what the charge for an entirely separate account where you can usually put an unlimited number of websites.  Considering that most of the overhead of bandwidth, disk space, and CPU power is included anyway, simply adding a new IP number is hardly worth $5.

I started out, looking for companies that offered free web hosting.  These companies make their money through other ways besides webmaster hosting fees.  They do so usually one of three or four ways.  The most popular seems to be placing their ads on your website pages.  Not a lot of people like this, and I’m one of them.   For the time being, I stay away from these, as I hate others ads on my sites.  Another approach some take, is that they hope as your website grows you will eventually move to a paid plan from them that has more benefits.  Disk space, CPU, bandwidth etc.   These were my favorite.   A third approach, is to force you post actively in their forum to keep your account active.  This way they grow an active community of webmasters, and attempt to monetize this community through ads or offers.  A fourth, and my least favorite, is a group that tries to get you to sign up for some promotional offer from a third party company (for which they get a kickback) before you get a free account.

However, I grew tired of trying to find good free web hosting accounts.  I also grew tired of their spotty support.   Lately, I’ve been searching out small companies that offer hosting for $10 to $20 per year.  They are usually resellers of larger host providers, but that’s ok with me.  It means I get lots of IPs for about a $1 or $2 per month per IP.  Plus, I can spread sites out across multiple physical machines.  If one server has problems, it only affects one website.  There’s nothing I hate more, than having a website down.  It can be a pain though, so finally finding a company that offers multiple IP hosting at a reasonable price is quite a relief.

With all the talk these days, it seems like everyone wants to save the planet.  At least they do when it can improve the bottom line.  OK, maybe I’m being a little cynical.  I’m sure there are lots of people running business that have sincere and heart felt concerns when it comes to do the right thing for the environment and future generations.  Not everyone is jaded enough to only be looking out for themselves.  But, that’s not to say that you can’t make a profit and cater to your conscience all at the same time.  Just look at guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.  They can’t seem to give enough money away to make the world a better place.  Sure, you may say they can afford to since they’ve made more money then they’ll ever spend.  But, I think it’s encouraging, since it shows that even very financially successful people have a strong desire to do good. I think that desire lives in all of us actually.

Well, without getting too far off topic, let’s take a lot at what it means to be a green web hosting company. The popular phrase that it all comes down to these days, is lowering your carbon footprint.  The trick with that for a highly power dependent kind of company like web hosting, is to be more selective about where you draw your energy from.  Is your primary source of electricity coal burning plants, or is it wind and solar power?  You can actually use more power, and  have a lower carbon footprint, by being a little more selective in where you spend your hydro dollars. Believe it or not, there are quite a few web hosting companies that are jumping on the green band wagon.

Going the less energy use model is always a good place to start.  Keep in mind, that there is more to a hosting company, then just a bunch of servers spinning away in a server room somewhere.  They are a real business, with accounting departments, personnel departments, and overhead costs.  That includes energy intensive systems such as heating, air conditioning, cleaning, and transportation.  Even if solar and wind may not provide enough power to keep their servers running at peak efficiency, it doesn’t mean they can improve their green ratings by lowering their carbon footprint in their staff offices.  It’s all fair game, and should be considered equally.  Even offering incentives for their employees to car pool or ride their bicycles to work counts.

There are countless ways for any business to be a good partner to the planet.  And it may even be more profitable to go that way.

Portable software is becoming the newest rage in computer software.  Many software programmers are designing their programs into sleek, dummed-down software that fits on portable drives and other trasferrable components.  From portable disk defragmenters to antivirus firewall software, these small pieces of code can fit on very little disk space.  This is why USB drives have become even more popular because computer users can operate complete programs off of them.  They are used heavily in troubleshooting situations and can assist in providing real-time monitoring. More »