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Recent Posts
- 31 Domain Name Questions Regarding BlueHost/HostMonster
- 10 Under-The-Radar Webmaster Tools That You Don't Want To Miss!
- BlueHost vs HostGator - Who is BIGGER?
- WebHostingPad SCAM
- Step By Step Guide On Signing Up With HostGator
- LunarPages vs HostGator - Why I Moved To Host Gator
- PayPal Sucks! PayPal Will Even Limit Verified Accounts!
- BlueHost Promotions and Offers - Get $108 OFF & Over $215 Credits
- BlueHost vs HostMonster - Which One Is Better?
- Example of BlueHost Hosted Sites
10-cheapwebhosting.com BLOG
31 Domain Name Questions Regarding BlueHost/HostMonster
Do I need a domain name to host with BlueHost/HostMonster? Must I register it with BlueHost?
Yes, you will need a domain name. You can either register a new domain name directly with them when you sign up, or you can use an existing domain name registered elsewhere.
Does BlueHost/HostMonster provides free domain registration? Do I need to pay for my "free" domain name when I renew my account?
If you are under 12, 24 or 36 months, your domain name will be FREE as long as you are with them. Even if you are paying the hosting for 2 or 3 years, your domain is only registered for 1 year and will be renewed later every year for free.
If your contract is less than 1 year, you won't get a free domain name and the domain name price will be $10 each.
Do I need to transfer my domain name to BlueHost?
No. All you need to do is to change the DNS settings of that domain name. Of course you can transfer the domain name over for organization purposes if you want.
Can I get a another FREE domain name if I already have my own domain name to sign up with?
Yes! As long as you take 12, 24 or 36 months, you will be given a FREE domain coupon to register for a new domain name you want later. You can also transfer your existing domain to BlueHost and use the coupon to extend the registration for 1 year. The coupon is given to you yearly as long as you are hosting with them so you can use it for any domain instead of a fixed domain.
The following screen shows that I still have 1 free coupon to use since I signup with an existing domain name.
What domain name extensions can I register with BlueHost/HostMonster?
You can register .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .us.
Can I host international domain names, e.g. .uk, .jp, .ws, etc. with BlueHost/HostMonster? Can I register one with them?
Yes, you can use any domains that you owned as long as you are able to change the domain's associated DNS servers to BlueHost's or HostMonster's. Although you can host international domain names with them, you cannot register a new one with them. You have to register it with the government authorized registrar and change the DNS settings to point to BlueHost or HostMonster.
What is BlueHost DNS nameservers settings?
ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com
What is HostMonster DNS settings?
ns1.hostmonster.com
ns2.hostmonster.com
Do I own my domain name if I register it with BlueHost/HostMonster?
Yes, you own the complete rights to your domain name when you register it with BlueHost/HostMonster. You are the rightful owner of the domain name. But just like putting money into a bank account, if the bank goes bankrupt, we will still able to get our money back but it will be quite troublesome. That's why we want our domain name to be registered with reputable companies like BlueHost or HostMonster, just like we will only deposit our money into reputable banks.
How many domains can I host with BlueHost/HostMonster? What is BlueHost domain pricing?
You can host UNLIMITED domain names with BlueHost/HostMonster. They don't charge you anything for "hosting" the domain name but you still need to pay for the registration. You can register a new domain for $10 through BlueHost or you can register it with any other registrar and change the DNS servers settings to BlueHost/HostMonster. Different domain registrars offer different pricing.
If I register a domain name with BlueHost/HostMonster, can I host it with another web host?
Yes! All you need to do is to change the DNS settings of that domain to the new settings (usually but not always - ns1.hostname.com, ns2.hostname.com). But why do you want to do that if BlueHost can host everything for you for free?
What are primary domain and addon domains?
Primary domain is the main domain that you setup the account with. Addon domains are extra domain names that you want to host under the same account. Technically, there can only be one primary domain but you can have unlimited addon domains.
Can I setup different email accounts with each addon domain?
Yes, you can setup unlimited email accounts with all your addon domains hosted under the same account. You can also setup email accounts on all your subdomains.
What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is an extension to the front of your domain name, separated by the '.' symbol. A subdomain is created to serve another website. For example, yahoo.com setup a subdomain mail.yahoo.com to act as their email service website.
Can I setup sub domain on my addon domain?
Yes, you can setup sub domain on your addon domain the same way you setup a sub domain with your primary domain. You can even setup subdomain on a subdomain!
Can I change my primary domain later? How much does it cost?
Yes, you can change your primary domain to another domain and it is free. For example, if you prefer one of your add-on domain to be your primary domain later, you can ask them to do it for you. But I strongly encourage you to pick the right primary domain name from the beginning.
How do I choose a good primary domain?
Based on my experience and the way files and directories are organized, I would recommend the use of a "holder" domain as the primary domain. The holder domain is not your content site. You setup all your content sites as addon domains. This 2-level organization (1) a holder -> (2)content sites is more organized compared to (1) primary content site -> (2) more content sites.
Another advantage is if you want to migrate your websites from a web host to another web host, it is far more easy to migrate an add-on domain compare to a primary domain because you don't need to affect other websites in your old account. If you migrate a primary domain, you will affect everything that "lives" on it (i.e. all the add-ons) because the primary domain is the "root".
So it is a good idea to use your FREE BlueHost domain name registration to register a new holder domain especially if you already have an existing domain name to use.
What is the difference between a parked domain and an addon domain?
Addon domain creates a different folder in your main hosting account which can be used to host a totally different website than your primary domain. A parked domain (or sometimes called domain pointer) will simply point to your primary domain which means you just give your primary domain another name.
Let's say there are 2 domains, Bill.com and Gates.com. If Gates.com is a parked domain, it will show the same contents as Bill.com, giving Bill.com a second name. On the other hand, if Gates.com is an addon domain, it will be another website, maybe a wrought iron gates manufacturer website that has nothing to do with Microsoft's Bill.com.
What is a domain pointer?
It should refer to domain "parking" as well. But sometimes people refer it as domain "forwarding".
What is domain forwarding?
Domain forwarding has the same meaning as domain redirecting. Both phases will be used interchangeably in our discussions below.
Can I redirect a domain/address to another domain/address with BlueHost/HostMonster?
You can easily redirect/forward an address to another address. You can even forward it to a domain/address that is not yours. For example, redirecting Yoursite.com/google.html to Google.com.
What exactly is the difference between "redirecting" and "parking"?
When you redirect/forward a domain, Bill.com will refresh to Gates.com and you will now see Gates.com showing in your browser address bar. On the other hand, if it is parked domain, typing Bill.com or Gates.com will load the same site BUT the address will remain the same in the address bar depending on which name you type in.
Redirect = jump from one place to another. Parking = 2 names for the same place.
Can I "park" a domain to an addon domain?
Since there is only 1 primary domain and many addon domains, we will often want to "park" a domain to an addon domain. Remember that parking means giving a domain another name (instead of jumping from one to another). You just need to add the new domain as an addon domain but link it to the same folder of the old domain.
addon domain -> folder
Bill.com -> /bill/
Gates.com -> /bill/
What is domain masking?
Similar to domain "parking", to give an existing domain another name. So far, we are concern with parking a domain name to another domain that we own. Domain masking also means "parking" to a domain/website that we don't own! You may want to load Google.com but in the address bar still showing MyFunnyWebsite.com. There are many reasons why people want to do that but most reasons are not "pretty" [i.e. making your visitors to believe a website is yours but actually it is not].
If I cancel my hosting account half way, what happen to my domain name? Can I get a refund?
If you cancel your account within the first 3 days, you can get a full refund, because the domain authority allows us to "unregister" a domain name within the first 3 days. However, if you cancel your account after that period, the domain can no longer be unregister and so you will need to pay $10 for it (deducted from the refund) but you will own the domain name for 1 year. You can easily host it with another website by simply changing the DNS settings to your new host. You can also transfer it away.
How do I manage my domain names with BlueHost/HostMonster?
You will have a "Domain Manager" to manage all your domain name in one place. In the domain manager, you can register new domain name, transfer a domain name, redirect a domain name and more.
How do I transfer my domain name to BlueHost/HostMonster?
You can do that in BlueHost/HostMonser's domain manager. You must have control to your domain name in your old registrar. You will need to generate a "secret code" from the old registrar and enter that secret code into BlueHost and BlueHost will take care of everything. It will usually take 5 days for a transfer to complete.
Can I transfer my domain name from BlueHost/HostMonster to another registrar?
Yes, you do it the same way as above but in a reverse direction. Get the "secret code" from BlueHost/HostMonster and enter it to your new registrar.
What is domain privacy and does BlueHost/HostMonster offer it? How much does it cost?
BlueHost domain privacy service is FREE with every domain name you registered with them! With domain privacy turn on, your personal registration information (address, phone number, email address, etc.) will not be publicly viewable through a domain whois search. The service is optional and you can always turn it off if you want (on each domain basis).
A domain with BlueHost domain privacy turn on will show the following information when people do a whois search on it. Anyone who want to contact the owner must now go through PrivacyProtect.org, who is of course BlueHost/HostMonster.
PrivacyProtect.org
Domain Admin (contact@privacyprotect.org)
P.O. Box 97
Note - All Postal Mails Rejected, visit Privacyprotect.org
Moergestel
null,5066 ZH
NL
Tel. +45.36946676
Can I modify specific domain DNS settings, i.e. zone files, cName and ARecord?
Yes, but these are advance settings for advanced user when they want to accomplish complicated configuration such as hosting the website with BlueHost but receiving/sending the emails with another web host. For geeks only.
Do you have any BlueHost domain name registration coupon for me?
Nope! Sorry. :) But you will get one from them when you are signing up with your existing domain name for 1 year and above. You can use it to register a new free domain name you want.
Related:
- The most comprehensive BlueHost Review
- BlueHost $3.95 Coupon Code
10 Under-The-Radar Webmaster Tools That You Don't Want To Miss!
You have probably heard of those popular webmaster tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, or maybe even Windows Live Writer and FileZilla FTP. But there are still plenty of great webmaster tools out there that is hidden under the radar. Today I will show you 10 powerful webmaster tools where chances are high that you might not even heard of them before. Most important, they are all available for FREE! Enjoy!
#1 - PhotoScape
This is my favorite. PhotoScape is a photo editor software tailor made for webmaster! You can easily resize a photo, crop it and most importantly, add a beautiful frame to it! There are hundreds of different frames that you can use. The photos of Angela Baby below have been cropped, resized and framed with only a few clicks!
The editor is only the tip of the iceberg. PhotoScape other key features include photo viewer, batch editor, photos combiner, photo splitter, animated GIF maker, screen capture, color picker, batch rename, etc. All of these are given to you FREE!
#2 - IE Tester
Windows doesn't allow us to install multiple version of Internet Explorer at the same time. But as a webmaster, we need to know how our website looks in IE 5.5, IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8! A website that looks great under IE7 might looks horrible in IE6. Before I found this tool, I have to install a virtual machine to run Windows XP and by doing that I can only see my website in IE6. No more the hassles. Now you can preview your website in any version of IE you want with this neat little tool.
By the way, the above screen capture is done painlessly using PhotoScape!
#3 - ScreenGrab
Ever wonder how you can capture a complete webpage into an image? ScreenGrab is the answer. ScreenGrab is a small add-on for Firefox that allows you to capture the webpage into a PNG of JPG file. You can capture with 4 different options - complete web page, only visible portion, the entire window or your custom selection.
ScreenGrab captured my entire homepage into a long image file. Again, I have used PhotoScape splitter function to slit it into 3 equal parts and used the combine function to combine them side by side. I have also added a frame to each part with just a few clicks. Now you know the power of PhotoScape!
#4 - JR Screen Ruler
Don't laugh. I used to measure something on the screen using a physical ruler! Or if accuracy is really not that important, I will just use my fingers. But that doesn't give me accurate reading until I found this virtual screen ruler. This screen ruler allows you to measure your screen in pixel, mm or inch. It will "float" on top of your application so you can measure anything on screen. You can make it shorter or longer at will (I mean the ruler, not...) and you can rotate it horizontally or vertically (again, the ruler). If you want to measure diagonally, use your fingers! Rotate your finger as a compass to the ruler. :)
#5 - JavaScript Packer/Compressor
What to speed up your website? Then you will need to compress your JavaScript files. I believe most of us don't write lengthy JavaScripts ourselves but when we use third party out-of-the-box scripts and plug-ins, there will be a lot of bytes in JavaScripts to save! For example, the ThickBox script that needs to be loaded on every page in my website is 15KB and after it is compressed, it became 10KB. It is a script that needs to be loaded on every page.
Again this image is captured using ScreenGrab and then cropped, resized and framed with PhotoScape.
#6 - User Agent Switcher
When someone requests a webpage from your server, they will inform the server what browser they are using as "user agent", be it Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. Search engine spiders also identify themselves using "user agent".
What the hackers do are they will show the hacked page that contains many spammy links when the user agents identify themselves as search engine such as GoogleBot and Yahoo Slurp but show you the normal clean page when it is a normal browser!
Some hacker will also redirect your website to theirs when GoogleBot fetch the page, making Google thinks that your site is actually their site. So all ranking credits given to you are now given to them. Again, they are showing you the normal clean page so you really don't know why your ranking drops in Google.
By having the ability to switch your user agent to GoogleBot in your browser, you can now check for anything suspicious in your website. Your website will display the way it is shown to GoogleBot. [Tip: You can also check Google Cache]
If you are exchanging links or advertising at your partner sites, checking their website using GoogleBot might give you some unpleasant surprises where they have tagged your link as "nofollow"!
Ok, this time the above screen capture is not done with ScreenGrab but ACDSee. This is because I need to capture the active menu and the mouse cursor. [Tip: You can also capture the screen using the Print Screen key on your keyboard and paste it to PhotoScape]
Download User Agent Switcher Now!
#7 - Xenu's Link Sleuth
I have been making websites since 1997 and have been using this tool since that time! This tool and its website do look like a stone-age production but its usefulness remains as powerful as it is today. [Don't worry it is still being updated, just that it looks ugly, look at the icons!]
Xenu's Link Sleuth is a time tested software where its power comes from simplicity, speed and ease of use. Type in your website URL and click the OK button and this neat little tool will crawl your entire website and inform you on broken links.
It fetched and followed 596 URLs in 1 minute and 24 seconds. Pretty amazing.
Download Xenu's Link
Sleuth Now!
#8 - Web Developer Toolbar
I believe this is not really "under the radar" as it is quite a popular tool. However, there are so many features packed in this tool that I believe you have not discovered many of them. One of them is the ability to edit cookies! You can easily change a cookie name, value and even its expiration time. This comes in handy when you are developing cookie related functions. For websites that will log you out after you close the browser, you may simply extend the cookie to some days later so you don't need to login again and again.
Other interesting features include easy resizing of browser windows, disable JavaScripts, find broken images, display document size and many many more. There are hundreds of menu items for you to choose! I am still able to discover new useful features from it time to time. You just got to explore it more.
Download Web
Developer Toolbar Now!
#9 - PureText
This is a funny little tool that I am using everyday. We do a lot of copy and paste in Windows. Most of the time when we copy text from the web, we just want the text and not its style (bold, font type, font size, javascript, blue link ...). But Windows forces us to paste with full style. PureText allows us to paste just text. You can do that by clicking on its icon in the system tray or you can simply press Windows Key + V.
Before I found PureText, I need to open notepad, paste to it, select all and do another copy!
#10 - FireBug
FireBug is more a BEAST than a bug. It is a very advanced tool but for ordinary users, its power comes from real-time editing of a webpage's HTML and CSS. So it makes customizing your blog and website easier. You can modify the HTML and CSS on the spot and see its effect in real time.
To demonstrate its power, let's look at the screen capture below. What I did was click on the "Inspect" button and select the "Google Search" button. Firebug will immediately highlight the respective HTML and CSS codes. I changed the HTML button to "GAGA Search", modified the CSS font size to 30px and we have a bigger GAGA button INSTANTLY. This makes fine tuning your website design easier, especially when you are customizing the free themes that you have downloaded for your blogs and websites.
If you stumbled upon a website with great design and you wonder how they do it, "inspect" it with FireBug and let it bring you to the exact coding of that element.
For advanced user, FireBug can even debug JavaScripts, analyze network usage and much much more. But honestly I really don't know how to do these high-end stunts.
Ok, that's all I can deliver today. If you have any cool tools
to suggest, simply write me a comment and I will give it a try.
Disclaimer: No tools were harmed in the making of this blog post.
BlueHost vs HostGator - Who is BIGGER?
While HostGator will release their stats every month in their newsletter, BlueHost has been very secretive about their "numbers". But recently, Matt Heaton, CEO and president of BlueHost and HostMonster disclose their magic numbers for the first time, so we can now compare both side by side.
So who is bigger? Who is growing faster? Let's find out.
At first let us look at the stats for HostGator collected from their monthly newsletter.
- November 2009 Stats:
Email sent: 574,475,391
Email Received: 1.04 Billion
Domains Hosted: 2,792,097
Size of Files hosted: 691 TB
Monthly Bandwidth: 3,473 TB
- December 2009 Stats:
Email sent: 597,454,406
Email Received: 1.08 Billion
Domains Hosted: 2,985,686
Size of Files hosted: 729 TB
Monthly Bandwidth: 4,401 TB
- January 2010 Stats:
Email Sent: 621,352,582
Email Received: 1.13 Billion
Domains Hosted: 3,105,228
Size of Files Hosted: 754 TB
Monthly Bandwidth: 4,710 TB
Next, let us look at BlueHost "secret numbers" for January 2010 released in Matt Heaton's blog post.
- Total Domains Hosted: 1.9+ million domains
- Total Paying Hosting Customers: More than 525,000
- Total Servers: 850+ (ALWAYS rotating out older servers)
- Total Sales/Billing/Support Requests Per Day: Approximately 5,000
- Number of new customers (not domains) added each day (Mon-Fri): 800+
- Number of new customers (not domains) added each day (Sat, Sun): 500+
- Number of new domains added each month: 50,000 � 70,000
- Total Bandwidth Capacity: 20 Gigabits/Second (100% ours, not shared in ANY way)
- Average Hold Time For Support: 19 seconds
- Number of Employees: 240+
- Registrar For Domains: Fastdomain Inc (Sister company that �sells� domains to Bluehost/Hostmonster)
- Outsourced services: NONE!!!!!!!
- Revenue: _____ (Some things really do need to be kept private)
- Profit: _____ (Some things really do need to be kept private)
* BlueHost numbers include HostMonster as both are the same company.
Now we know that in terms of size base on number of domains hosted, HostGator is bigger. HostGator number of domains hosted in January 2010 are 3.1 million while BlueHost are 1.9 million.
BlueHost is growing new domains hosted as much as 50,000 to 70,000 each month. HostGator is able to grow faster at 120,000 to 190,000 per month.
So does that means the winner is HostGator? NOT SO FAST!
The metric that we use for the comparison is the number of domains hosted which is not the best measure. The best measure would be the number of customers. Since a customer can host unlimited domains in their account, a customer that host 100 domains is still 1 customer. Unfortunately, HostGator doesn't disclose this information. BlueHost currently has 525,000 paying customers.
HostGator is a full service web hosting provider offering all kinds of hosting solutions such as shared hosting, windows hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated servers, etc. while BlueHost focus solely on Linux-based shared hosting. So the number of domains hosted are easily distorted for HostGator.
HostGator advertise their products everywhere including the offline world using BIG bill boards, magazines, radio air-time and even human skin!!! BlueHost focus their marketing effort solely online and most of their new customers come from word of mouth of their existing customers.
How Much Money Is BlueHost Making?
This will be very interesting! [It happens that my part time hobby is to analyst businesses]
Matt Heaton didn't disclose their business revenue but due to the simplicity of their business that offer only one product, we can do an accurate estimation!
Since hosting fee are recurring, and assume the average monthly price paid is $6.95, a year would be $83.40. Times the number of paying customers 525,000 will give us a revenue of $44 million a year!
They are able to increase domains by 50,000 to 70,000 each month so it would be like 720,000 a year. That would be around 37% increase a year.
So estimated revenue for BlueHost is $44 million per year and I expect this number will grow more than 30% each year for the next several years!
After I wrote this article, Matt Heaton shot me the following email.
Big problem with your evaluation. You said BlueHost does 4.4 million in revenue based on $6.95 * 525,000. That is very incorrect. $6.95 * 525,000 * 12 is more accurate (12 months in a year). That is $44.1 million in revenue per year, and actually we do MUCH HIGHER revenue than that each year.
HostGator as of January 2010 had less than 230,000 paying customers. At that time we had 525,000. They host more domains because they do reseller hosting, but they don't come close to BlueHost in revenue numbers, paid subscriber numbers, or profit. Its not even close. Please update your article to reflect this new information.
Thanks,
Matt Heaton / President Bluehost.com
So it looks like I made a very careless mistake (luckily this is not a school exam and analyzing businesses is only a hobby). The number above has been updated from 4.4 million to 44 million.
So who is BIGGER? Matt Heaton indicates that HostGator paying customers is only 230,000, which is less than half of BlueHost. If his information is correct, then BlueHost is twice larger than HostGator. So BlueHost is the winner here!
Even at half of BlueHost, HostGator will still be able to generate 22 million a year! A number that many businesses can only envy of.
I hope these figures give you more confidence on hosting with BlueHost and HostGator as you can see they are serious businesses.
For first time visitor, BlueHost is rated as the #1 host, HostMonster #2 and HostGator #3. All of them are highly recommended. Simply read my hosting reviews to find out more about them.
Related:
- BlueHost Review
- HostGator Review
- HostGator Plans Comparison
- Compare HostGator shared hosting plans with BlueHost.
WebHostingPad SCAM
After I wrote my WebHostingPad review, I received many feedback from my visitors. While the reason I don't recommend them is because I don't think they are able to provide good service at $1.99/month, my visitors are telling me that they are actually a SCAM host!
This is a serious issue because we are not talking about poor customer support or poor server quality. We are talking about WebHostingPad keep charging the customer credit card even they have canceled their account. We are talking about WebHostingPad not honoring their money back guarantee. We are talking about MONEY being cheated. The worst web host we can have is a dishonest web host that want to steal our money.
Here is the email from Terry.
Beware of Web Hosting Pad. I signed up for their service because of the price and the promises that they make. Boy was that a huge mistake. So I ask for a refund per there policy in 3 days and was told in the email below that it was cancelled as well as refunded. Well its been 9 days and no refund. I disputed the charge with the Credit card company and then called them. Andrew told me that since I filed a dispute with the credit card company he was not going to issue a refund. The Credit Card company in turn told me that they would take care of it.
I am also filing a complaint with the BBB as well as the Attorney General. Until this all goes thru I just wanted to warn anyone who may be thinking about doing business to beware.
Here is a copy of the credit which they never gave!!!
Hello,
This is to inform you that your account has been canceled and that you have been issued a full refund. Please allow up to 5 business days for the refund to appear on your credit card account.
Andrew
Technical Support / Billing Manager
www.webhostingpad.com
Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: WUG-693508
Department: Cancellation
Priority: High
WebHostingPad Money Scamming Tricks
"Free" Add-ons And Trials That Will Be Billed
When you sign up, they will provide you free add-ons and trials for 30 days. These add-ons include something like spam filtering, advanced web stat, premium backup service, directory listing, SSH, etc.
But they make it difficult (or impossible) for you to cancel them so they can bill you after 30 days (for 1 whole year of service!). Many customers have canceled the "free" trial but WebHostingPad still charge them later.
Here is a reply from WebHostingPad when a customer asked for an explanation after he has canceled the free trials.
These were addon services that you checked at signup. They were free for the first 30 days and then you were to be billed if you didn't cancel the services.
Unfortunately there are no refunds on this addon packages, I can only cancel renewal for next year. If you would like us to cancel these packages please get back to us.
Please refer to our terms of service here : http://www.webhostingpad.com/billing_policy.html
Add-on Features and Services
The business directory listing is free for the first 30 days. After that, it is $12.00/year billed to your account unless canceled during the free trial period.
Advanced spam filtering and advanced website stat tracking are free for the first 30 days. After that, they are $12.00/year each billed to your account unless canceled during the free trial period.
Preferred restore service: All backup restrictions terms and conditions still apply. 30 minute restore guarantee applies to starting the backup restore. Actual time needed to complete restore will depend on size and content of the backup.
All Add-ons are non refundable once the 30 day free trial period has elapsed.
Alex
Technical Support
www.webhostingpad.com
877-998-4678
Hidden Refund Charges
Their full money back guarantee is not full because they will charge you $25 to process your refund! So once you pay them and ask for a refund, they will deduct $25 from you!
What I don't understand is the hidden costs of the refund. They said I'd have to pay for the domain. So since I paid $61.59 and the domain costs $14.59$, I would have gotten a $47 refund, I thought.
Now they also state that there's a $25 charged for refunds, whether checks or credit cards were used and that it will take 7-10 days to complete a cancellation, while the purchase and set up took less than 1 day.
Suspend Your Account After 30 Days
Since money back guarantee last for 30 days, there are incidents where customer account are suspended after 30 days by accusing the customer of violation of their terms and conditions (usually using too many resources, ahem, "unlimited" hosting?). Since they intentionally do it after 30 days, there will be no refund.
Worst still, they will not notify you after they suspend your account and you will have to find it out yourself!
Charge Your Credit Card Again Even After You Have Canceled!
Shawn wrote me an email.Webhostingpad.com is the worst web host scam in the world� Two years ago, I made the mistake of signing up for two years of hosting through Webhostingpad.com. Three months later, I cancelled my account (lost all of my money I paid for two years)� and I went to a much better web host.
Then, I just discovered Webhostingpad.com illegally billed my credit card again for another two years without my permission! I emailed Webhostingpad.com about this, and they responded in their typical fashion- rude and ugly. I reported this fraud to my credit card company and had the charge removed. I have filed a complaint with the IC3 and the FBI. I also filed a report with the Secret Service, and am working on a report with the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau.
Better Business Bureau Rate Them 'F'!
There are 79 complaints filed towards them and 27 of them are related to billing, 3 related to contract and 14 regarding refunds. That means half of the issues are regarding to money scams.
A grade of "F" is awarded to them on the scale of A+ to F (the lowest grade!).
Stick With Reputable Hosts!
I can forgive a web host with poor customer support. I can forgive a web host with slow server. But I cannot forgive a web host that is cheating our money. Stay away from them! Stick with the best web hosts, especially Blue Host and Host Gator. If you have some scary story to share, leave me a comment below.
Step By Step Guide On Signing Up With HostGator
While signing up with BlueHost can be done in 2 minutes (as seen in this bluehost video), signing up with HostGator may need at least 10 minutes! There are too many options and too many page loads. You may even make some mistake and need to start all over again.
In October, I have moved this site from LunarPages to HostGator. I took the chance to capture the order process so I can show you here what you will need to go through so you won't give up half way.
Step #1 - Enter Your Domain Name
You can either register a new domain name or use an existing name. HostGator doesn't offer free domain name and if you are registering a new domain name, you will need to pay $15/year for it. If you want a free domain name, choose Blue Host instead. In my case, I will be using my existing domain name 10cheapwebhosting.com. I planned to add my real domain name 10-cheapwebhosting.com (with dash) as an add-on domain later.
Step #2 - Select Your Hosting Plan
Select your hosting plan. It will be either Hatchling, Baby or Business. Baby is recommended and is also the most popular choice because it allows you to host unlimited domains. I've selected Baby.
Step #3 - Select Billing Cycle and Enter Coupon Code
The billing cycle is either monthly, 6-months, yearly, 24-months or 36-months. Remember to enter your coupon here if it has not been automatically entered for you. The 20% discount coupon is always published in their homepage. If you want to try them for $0.01 for 1 month, use the coupon code FREEMONTH. I have selected 24-months with a 20% discount coupon because it will be cheaper that way since I will be with them for a long time.
Step #4 - Confirm Pricing, New or Existing Customer?
In this page, you will be shown your final hosting fee after the coupon discount. You will also need to tell them if you are a new customer or an existing HostGator customer. If you are an existing customer, probably you won't need to read this tutorial. So I assume you are a new customer.
Step #5 - Enter Billing Information, Username and Password
Enter your personal information and your prefered payment options here. You can pay with credit card or PayPal. You can select your own username with HostGator which is a cool feature because most web hosts will simply assign you an ugly username automatically. My previous username from LunarPage is "n0-che2" which is not easy to type and remember!
Step #6 - Confirm Your Order
Review your information before you click the "Process My Order" button. This step is very important because if you make any mistake, you will have to repeat all the steps above again! So please double check your information especially your credit card information. If there is something wrong, hit the "Correct My Information" button.
Step #7 - Order Completed!
Congratulation! You are now hosted by HostGator. You make a wise choice.
Step #8 - Check Your Email
Unlike BlueHost which offer instant account activation (where you can use your account immediately after you pay), HostGator is activating account manually. They promised to setup your account within 20 minutes. But I have mine setup in less than 5 minutes. You will receive 2 emails. The first look like this
Thank you for choosing HostGator.com as your web hosting provider. This email confirms that we have received your order.
If you have already submitted payment, your account will be setup within 20 minutes. If you have yet to make payment, you may do so by going to https://secure.hostgator.com/billing and logging in with primary email address and password specified at time of signup.
Once your account is setup, you will receive an email notification with your account information. If you fail to receive this email, please check your spam and junk email folders. If you still can't find it, please contact sales@hostgator.com with an alternative email address we can use.
Thank you again for choosing HostGator. We are looking forward to serving you soon.
Best regards,
HostGator.com
The second email will inform you that your account has been created.
Thank you for your order and welcome to the HostGator Family!
Your Package: Baby
Your Domain: 10cheapwebhosting.com
Your Username: <snip>
Your Password: <snip>
Your sites IP address:
174.120.169.220
Your name servers:
ns2153.hostgator.com
ns2154.hostgator.com
----------------------
Until your DNS has been changed and resolves to our nameservers, you can access your cPanel at:
http://gator1077.hostgator.com/cpanel
You can view your site before the DNS has been resolved at:
http://gator1077.hostgator.com/~<snip>/
If you purchased your domain name with us, the above links will allow you to view your domain before it has resolved. Your domain may not be viewable for the first 24 to 48 hours depending on your location.
There is a file called default.html in your public_html folder. This page will give you basic links and information on how to get started. You're welcome to delete this file or upload an index.html file in the public_html folder. Once that is completed, the default.html file will not show by default.
Please be sure to read:
http://www.hostgator.com/gettingstarted.html for all the information needed to manage your DNS and account.
Please, sign up at https://secure.hostgator.com/sitebuilder.php if you would like to take advantage of our Sitebuilder tool.
You can find answers to your questions in our customer knowledge base. Please visit http://support.hostgator.com/ for helpful resources, and frequently asked questions.
Please note:
Any email sent by your account within the next 12 hours will not be delivered to the recipient. After 12 hours, and any applicable DNS propagation, mail should arrive as normal.
If you are in the U.S. or Canada, your account qualifies for $50 dollars in free credit for Google Adwords pay per click program. To redeem your coupon, please login to your control panel or https://gator1077.hostgator.com:2083/frontend/x3/hg/addons/adwords.php and login with your username and password. Just follow the instructions on that page to get started!
Best regards,
HostGator.com
After your account is created, you may need to update the DNS servers of your domain name if you are using an existing domain name. The steps varies depending on who is your domain registrar but it is usually a simple procedure. HostGator has many tutorials on how to do it here.
Potential Problem #1 - Invalid Credit Card
If you entered the wrong billing information (for example, wrong credit card number), your order will not go through. You will have to start all over again! And that actually happened to me. So please make sure you really check your input at Step #6.
Potential Problem #2 - Username or Password Not Accepted
While HostGator give you the freedom to choose your own username, there are many criterias that you need to follow.
The username must be 3 to 8 characters long. It can only contain alphabets and numbers. No hyphens and spaces are allowed. It must start with a lowercase letter! For simplicity sake, please choose a short username with all lowercase letters so you can remember and type it easily.
The password must be 3 to 15 characters long. It can contain hyphens (dashes) and underscores. It must start with a lowercase letter (that means no numbers for the first character!) and it also cannot contain any part of your username.
If you don't follow these rules carefully, you will be stuck at Step #5 and it can be very annoying.
Conclusion
Signing up with HostGator is indeed a lengthy process and if you don't do it right, you may need to repeat it again. Or you may get stuck with the username and password. However, they are an incredibly good host that is highly recommended. That's why I am willing to pay them 2 years in advance! Read my Host Gator review to know what it is highly recommended.
Related:
- Best Web Hosting Chart- HostMonster Review
