In the middle ages, the Samurai were Japan’s warrior class and were highly specialized in the art of war. They also carried with them a specific code of ethics and rules they lived by.

Although WP Blog Host is not at war with anyone, I do see them as the Samurai of the web hosting industry… especially for anyone looking to start a blog.

They are highly specialized in the domains and web hosting industry and the code of ethics which govern their system is based around taking care of their customers (see #9 below).

I’d like to point out real quick, too, that just because they brand themselves as the place on the web to host your blog with, their hosting and domain products really cater to anyone looking to build their online presence… from beginner sites to the most advanced and highest traffic generating sites.

10 Reasons WP Blog Host Kicks Other Hosting Companies Asses Like a Samurai

1. Security

When you purchase web hosting from a company, you’re not only getting a place to store your website, you’re also purchasing email accounts, FTP connections, ability to create online communities with logins and passwords, etc.

Over the past 3 years I’ve been blogging (and 15 years online), I seem to of earned a reputation around Internet-ville for being the guy that knows a thing or two about web security, especially WordPress security.

If you’re a blogger, realize that web security goes way beyond simply locking down your WordPress blog. Choosing the right web hosting company to host with is crucial to keeping:

• your website secure
• your emails hidden from view
• your FTP connections encrypted
• viruses firewalled from attacking your home computer

That’s where WP Blog Host kicks butt… security!

Hosting with them you can:

• Run your email through SSL encryption (even your iPhone’s email). That means your emails will be encrypted with the same technology used to encrypt credit card numbers online.
• Connect to your FTP account through FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure). This means your FTP username and password will never be transmitted in the clear and will always be encrypted.
• The servers used to host your website are upgraded to the latest and best security hardware/software there is.
• Customers can purchase SSL Certificates for their websites at a very affordable price which encrypts data sent to and from their website. So for example, if you use WordPress, you can log into your blog and work in your Dashboard area under the protection of SSL encryption.

2. It’s Easy to Find Customer Support & Help

This is a big one for me.

Recently, I did a WordPress upgrade for a customer who hosted their blog with a different company. The customer had a question related to their web hosting and being the good guy that I am, I tried to find the answer for them instead of telling them, “You need to contact your hosting provider.”

So I went to the customer’s hosting provider’s page (a relatively reputable company) and clicked on the Get Support button.

From there I was hoping to see a tech support phone number which I could call so I could get my question answered quickly. To my disappointment, there was no phone number to call.

To make matters worse, their “Get Support” page consisted mostly of links to tutorials so that hopefully you could answer your own question. There wasn’t even a clear area where to click to email their tech support.

Inevitably, this was the “Get Support” page option I was faced with:

What the heck? PAID support? Isn’t that what this customer was paying for when they purchased web hosting?

The WP Blog Host Alternative . . .

Simply head over to the Support Area of WP Blog Host and you’ll immediately find:

• 24×7 email and telephone support for hosting / domain products
• Extensive online help resources with a ton of downloadable pdf files
• WordPress help via this blog, contacting me, and WP Blog Host.tv

And what’s awesome about WP Blog Host is the fact that they have a really cool and experienced WordPress blogger (me) available to hit up when their customers have a WordPress or blogging question. I live and work right in the trenches doing what bloggers do everyday.

It’s my job. Not bad, huh?

3. Full Line of Hosting & Domain Products

We all hope that one day our blogs will explode and we get to become the next Darren Rowse of blogging. If that happens (lucky you) it would be nice to know your hosting company can stick with you no matter how much traffic your site receives or how popular you become.

WP Blog Host customers can choose from the following types of hosting:

• Low economical shared plans
• Virtual Dedicated
• Dedicated
• Unlimited options

When you become a problogger you need a web host who can stand by you and back you up no matter how popular your blog becomes.

GZip Compression for Speed

And if the speed at which your website loads is a concern for you, WP Blog Host’s servers are set and ready for gzip compression. Check out how with one simple copy and paste I sped up my blog’s load time here at WP Blog Host as much as 4.6 times!

4. Over 50 Free Simple Installations of Popular Programs

WP Blog Host has their own set of easy to install scripts, much like the Fantastico bundle of software you might see with other hosts.

I won’t bore you by listing out all 50+ programs you can easily install on your hosting account, but here are a few of the more popular ones:

• Blogs: WordPress, Geeklog, Serendipity, Lifetype
• CMS: Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, MODx, Nucleus, anyInventory
• e-Commerce: Zen Cart, osCommerce, nopCommerce
• Forums: phpBB, Simple Machines Forum, Vanilla Forum
• Misc: MediaWiki, phpFreeChat, phpmyvisites, phpMyFAQ

Click here to see the full list of the over 50 free programs.

5. Domain Names Come with Free Hosting & Free Email

You actually get a lot more than just free hosting and free email with each domain name, but those are the two most popular free products I see people use.

The email address comes with a full 1 GB of storage space and is personalized to your domain name. The free hosting is ad supported and comes with all the features found in the Economy Hosting Plan.

This is awesome because if you’re new to blogging and not sure you want to stick with it, you can purchase a domain name for under $10 and you can test your skills at blogging when you’re on a tight budget (though $6.95/mo. for hosting won’t set you back much).

6. Blog Security Upgrades Offered

If you’re a WordPress blogger, wouldn’t it be nice if your hosting company had someone on staff who knew a thing or two about blogging and WordPress?

That’s why I’m here at WP Blog Host.

My job is to simply be a blogger and do all the things a WordPress blogger does. By doing exactly the kinds of things our customers do and go through, I learn… plain and simple. I then can pass on my experiences to our customers through my blog, social sites, other blogs, etc. in hopes that I can help them succeed in this venture we call blogging.

Now what other hosting company does that?

Oh right… blog security upgrades! I was getting to that.

Because I’ve been there done that in blogging and have gone through the horrible experience of having a website hacked and broken before, I’ve spent the last year learning how to better secure a WordPress blog from intruders.

I now provide two services for customers: 1) A very informative ebook called, WordPress Defender, which includes nearly 2 hours of videos detailing how to systematically secure your WordPress blog and 2) forget reading the book, hire me to do it for you.

Again, what other web hosting company does that for their WordPress customers?

7. Economical Monthly Web Hosting Pricing

There’s one thing which really upsets me in the web hosting field… it’s when I see companies advertising things like $6.95/mo. web hosting in big bold letters only to find out that customers can’t really pay month-to-month, they must pay semi annually or annually.

Grrr… that gets me going.

They’re advertising something in big bold letters which they don’t really offer… monthly hosting.

It’s just a ploy so they can advertise the “low cost” of hosting.

On the flip side,

WP Blog Host not only offers truly affordable low cost month-to-month hosting (starting at $6.95/mo.), but they go the extra mile to make sure their customers always feel safe spending their hard earned dollars with them.

I’m not just talking security, I’m talking about making sure their customer’s money never goes to waste (see #10 below for more details on that).

8. Very clean and simple to use File Manager

It’s no secret web hosts share the same bundles of software which they use to allow their customers to connect to things such as their File Manager, FTP accounts, databases, etc.

Many web hosts use the cPanel program for such services; however, we’ve found that many new bloggers find the cPanel program’s File Manager to be a bit confusing. Take a look at the comparison.

cPanel File Manager (more confusing)	WP Blog Host File Manager (simple)

To this day I still have customers who host with other companies ask me what the difference is between the WWW directory and the public_html.

WP Blog Host’s File Manager is very clear, easy, and simple to use and figure out.

9. WP Blog Host Really Cares About Their Customers

If I could sum up in 3 sentences what WP Blog Host is about, it’s…

• Take care of the customer.
• Take care of the customer.
• Take care of the customer.

Of course they are a business and they need to make money to pay paychecks, lights, connectivity, etc., but their philosophy is that the best way to accomplish this is to focus on taking care of the customer.

If you focus on that, it’s only inevitable that money will follow.

I don’t work in the technical support department, but I know those are some of the nicest folks you will chat with and are very patient.

For me, I know I always try to take care of my fellow bloggers when they have questions, but when I know someone is a customer of WP Blog Host, I really try to go that extra mile when I can.

10. Web Hosting: You Only Pay for What You Use

How cool is this . . .

Let’s say instead of paying month-to-month for hosting you decide you want to pay for 1 year in advance (or any other number of years); however, after two months you decided “Ah, this really isn’t for me.”

All you’d need to do is call WP Blog Host’s tech department and let them know you wish to cancel your hosting and have the remaining 10 months you prepaid refunded back to you.

Done.

Just take care of the customer… it’s that simple.

Bonus Reason WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai – Backups!

Your website is safe and easily recoverable.

If you accidentally delete something from your website, or even worse crash it, fixing it is a snap.

WP Blog Host makes nightly backups of all hosting accounts and it’s easy for you to restore any part of your website back to 30 days prior. Just log into the File Manager, click the History button, and choose a date from which you’d like to restore a file, folder, or the entire site.

Now go get yourself a domain name and hosting account and start your website off with a web hosting company that kicks butt like a Samurai.

Related posts:

1. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
2. 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting
3. How To Choose The Best WordPress Blog Hosting Company

His newsletters are always packed with valuable information detailing ways to get more traffic to your site, list building techniques, how to write and profit from ebooks, and a ton more. What I really like about this guy is he simply shows you how he makes millions of dollars himself, many times through free webinars.

His latest newsletter, just emailed to me last night, talks about 7 mistakes many ebook authors make. It’s a fantastic article and a must read if you’re ever considering writing your own ebook (as is his newsletter). With his permission, I am reprinting it here for you to read.

For full disclosure, please note that the links in this article to his ebook, eBook Secrets Exposed are affiliate links. I did, however, purchase this ebook myself and think it’s packed with great information for ebook writers.

And if you’re looking for an ebook packed with a ton more information about writing and publishing your very own ebook, you might like to check out his other book, How to Write and Publish your own eBook… in as little as 7 Days. That, my friends, was an awesome book and I highly recommend it.

Ok enough jibber jabbering. Here’s the article – enjoy!

eBooks are the hottest thing going on the Web right now!

Authors with the entrepreneurial instinct are making anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month – that’s right, per month – by selling ebooks
online.

Why are some authors doing so much better than others?

We’ve discovered seven key mistakes that most ebook authors make (and in doing so, hold themselves back from major success):

1. They don’t write to a specific, target audience.

The biggest mistake most ebook authors make is they don’t clearly define, identify and visualize who they are selling their ebook to. On the Web, to be successful, you must
write to a specific group of people who have specific interests. Make sure that you know exactly who is going to buy your ebook, and where you can find them online.

2. They don’t automate as many of their business activities as possible.

Selling ebooks, though it is highly profitable, is not a business where you make hundreds of dollars per sale.

Automate everything you can – credit card processing, ebook delivery, as much technical support as possible. If you can’t automate a function, delegate it to someone else.

3. They don’t have a compelling title for their ebook.

Use words that convey the benefit of what’s in the ebook, as well as words your audience is familiar with.

A bad title for an ebook: “Online Marketing for Newbies.” A good title for the same book: “97 Ways to Promote Your Website – No Experience Required.”

4. They try to cover too much ground.

Many ebook authors convey a lot of information but don’t cover anything in-depth. As a result, they never fully explain anything in enough detail to provide any useful value to their readers. This is a very bad mistake to make, especially when it comes to how-to ebooks, which happen to be the best type to write.

5. They are not proactive in their marketing.

It would be nice if marketing for your ebook simply happened on its own – but it doesn’t. You have to do it yourself.

After you’ve promoted your ebook to the people on your own mailing list (if you have one), then you have to contact other Website owners and persuade them to be your affiliates. You should do this continually.

6. They don’t differentiate their ebook from its competitors.

When you choose your topic, even if there are a hundred other ebooks out there on same general subject, choose an angle for yours that will make it easy for yours to be distinguished from the others.

For example, right now job-hunting ebooks are very popular. There are dozens that are big sellers. “Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales” has a very specific title that sets it apart from the competition, and is aimed at a clearly identified target audience.

Incidentally, it’s selling very well itself.

7. They write ebooks that nobody will pay for.

Many ebook authors write about information that either people can get for free, or that people are not actually interested in enough to pay for the information.

Before you invest weeks or months into the writing of your ebook, invest a little time investigating whether other ebooks in the same subject area are selling on the Web.

So, there you have it – the seven big mistakes to avoid. Remember, the opportunities are plentiful – and huge – right now for anyone who wants to become a best-selling ebook author.

Simply use common sense, follow our advice, and let your literary career flourish!

Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel are co-authors of “eBook Secrets Exposed: How to Make Massive Amounts of Money in Record Time With Your Own eBook (whether you wrote it or not!),” the authoritative guide to publishing and marketing ebooks on the Web.

Guerrilla Marketing author Jay Conrad Levinson says, “If there ever was a ‘must-read’ for this century, it’s this book.” For more information:
Click here ==> eBook Secrets Exposed

Related posts:

1. John’s Top 5 Crash and Burn Blogger Mistakes Which Keep You Poor
2. Choosing The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing For Your Website
3. How Easily Do You Lose Focus?

I know, it sucks.

There are a ton of people out there with nothing better to do with their time than snoop around on the Internet watching for people who send login information, such as Usernames and Passwords, unsecured through the webs of the Internet.

Then when they capture someone’s login credentials, they take it upon themselves to easily log into the person’s account and fill it up with spam links and viruses.

Like I said, it sucks.

Unfortunately, it’s true and unless you take steps to protect what you’ve spend so many hours away from your family building, someone some day may take great pleasure in destroying. Even worse, they don’t even care that your website is what helps put food in your children’s mouths or collect donations to help fight cancer.

The worst part is many times they don’t even know who you are.

They use automated scripts/bots/spiders or whatever your choice term is for automated programs designed to sniff you, the unprotected WordPress users, out.

Where They Find Your Username & Password

As a web host, we have to deal with protecting customer Usernames and Passwords when they connect to their web hosting control panel, but when it comes to 3rd party programs like WordPress, it is up to the user to secure their program.

But that’s why I’m here, right?

When it comes to WordPress, there are 3 primary ways your Username and Password will be sent to your web hosting server unprotected:

1. When logging into WordPress
2. When changing passwords and/or adding new users to WordPress
3. Through your FTP connection (independent of WordPress)

In this article, we’ll discuss how to protect your Username and Password through SSL when logging into WordPress and doing things like adding new WordPress users and changing passwords.

In a follow-up article, we’ll discuss our FTP problem.

Encrypting Your WordPress Session

I know, no body wants to spend more money on something that doesn’t immediately get them a return on their investment.

But what does a business owner of a brick and mortar store think when she purchases a security system for their shop? That’s how you should think about your WordPress blog’s security.

The best way to encrypt your WordPress session is through SSL.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and basically what it does is allow for transfers of information over the Internet, such as your Username and Password, to be done in an encrypted manner.

You can buy one from our company by visiting our SSL Certificate page.

If you’ve ever purchased something online where you had to enter in a credit card number, chances are the web page you were on was encrypted with SSL. You can easily spot if this is so by looking up into the address bar and seeing if the web address starts with https:// as opposed to the standard http://.

The https:// means that when you fill in your name, address, credit card information, etc., it’ll all be transmitted over the Internet encrypted.

We can use this same method e-commerce sites use to encrypt our credit card information to encrypt our WordPress login information.

Setting Up SSL

To set up WordPress to work under SSL, you’ll need the following:

1. Your own domain name
2. Web hosting with WordPress installed
3. A dedicated IP address for your web hosting (purchased through your web hosting provider)
4. An SSL Certificate ($30/yr. if purchased from us)

Assuming you have your own domain name and WordPress blog already set up, the next thing you’ll need to do from the list above is purchase a dedicated IP address for your web hosting. To do that, you’ll need to contact your web hosting provider or visit their products page and purchase one.

Setting this up is easy. For the most part all you need to do is purchase it and tell it which domain name you want it applied to.

Once that is done, you’ll need to purchase an SSL Certificate. Some web hosts sell them while others do not. You can also find other companies that sell them, such as VeriSign; but in my experience, those companies are usually more expensive. Notice how they don’t even advertise the price on their landing page, you have to contact them for a quote.

How to install an SSL Certificate on your web hosting server is beyond what I want to get into in this article, but after you purchase one what happens is you will download the certificate and need to upload and install it on your web hosting account.

The process typically isn’t fun for those of you who think SSL was some kind of Saturday Night Live skit, but your web hosting company should help you get it installed. If not, tell them “Hey . . . thanks, buddy!”

The good news for WP Blog Host hosting customers is that we make this process very easy for you!

What else would you expect from a company whose target customers are newbie bloggers?

If you are a hosting customer of WP Blog Host, we will include free with your SSL Certificate (when purchased from us) a dedicated IP address and best of all, we’ll even install everything for you so your website is SSL ready.

All you’d need to do is wait for an email informing you everything is set up.

From that point, once you have managed to get your website SSL ready, you can move on to the next step and actually apply it to your WordPress admin area.

Setting Up WordPress To Use SSL

Now that you got SSL set up to work on your website (i.e. https:// is available), you can move on to the simple step of telling WordPress it can use SSL to log you into WordPress securely and encrypt the stuff you do from within your Dashboard (write posts, create users, change passwords, etc.).

Log into your web hosting control panel and head over to your File Manager.

From there, locate your wp-config.php file and open it up using your control panel’s file editor.

Once opened, paste this code anywhere inside it:

/* Force Login and Admin SSL */
define(‘FORCE_SSL_LOGIN’, true);
define(‘FORCE_SSL_ADMIN’, true);

Source: WordPress.org SSL

I know adding security to your blog is not fun, but it really is a necessity.

I think $29.99 a year for an SSL Certificate is money well spent. I know it might suck getting it set up (unless you’re a hosting customer of WP Blog Host), but once it’s done, it’s done – and you’ll be logging into your blog over an encrypted channel from now on.

You can see that I’m using SSL for this blog, just go up to the address bar and add a “s” to the http (i.e. https://wpbloghost.com/blog).

I don’t run my frontend encrypted because many of the images I have linked to are not https and would cause Internet Explorer to pop up a warning box to users which I feel might scare some of them away. It just tells them there are some items which are secure and some which aren’t (like pictures).

Questions:

Do you think your blog’s security is worth $30 a year?

How many of your are convinced this is something you really should do but in reality you probably will never get around to it?

UPDATE: I forgot to mention WP Blog Host is running a few promotional codes you can use when purchasing products. If you purchase an SSL Certificate, you can save 5% or more by using the promo codes below. Codes are good through Thanksgiving.

Promo Code Description Start Date End Date 100CN15 15% discount off any order $100 or more 11/2/2009 11/27/2009 50CN10 10% discount off any order $50 or more 11/2/2009 11/27/2009 5NC25 5% discounts on orders $25 and over 11/2/2009 11/27/2009 Visit our Product Catalog to view all our hosting and domain products.

Related posts:

1. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
2. 2 Killer WordPress Security Plugins You Probably Don’t Know About
3. WordPress 3.0: Security Upgrades Overview & How To Install It

Some promotions expire and at different times, so if you see a promotion you like, check the promo’s expiration date.

1. Promotional Codes

Promo Code Description Start Date End Date 100CN15 15% discount off any order $100 or more 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 50CN10 10% discount off any order $50 or more 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 5NC25 5% discounts on orders $25 and over 6/21/2009 7/6/2009 Visit our Product Catalog to view all our hosting and domain products.

Who doesn’t like promotional codes? These codes are good through the 4th of July weekend (2009) for any of our domain and hosting products. Great to use when you purchase web hosting annually.

2. $3.99 Domains with Purchase

Purchase any non-domain product from within our product catalog and register domain names at a discounted price of $3.99. Great if you’re looking to start an affiliate site or start a blog.

3. Register a .US tld for $7.99

This promotion was inspired by the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Register .us domain names for only $7.99. This promotion ends July 7, 2009 at midnight Pacific time.

4. FREE Private Registration with 5 or more domains

Register or transfer 5 or more domains with WP Blog Host and receive free private registration for those domain names. Note: Privacy must be added to the order in which the domains are purchased in order to qualify for the free offer (i.e. add private registration to the cart).

5. $1.99 .INFO tld Discount

Whether you want to promote information about your businesses, organizations or yourself, .INFO is a great way to create an identity on the Web. Get .INFO first year registration for just $1.99/yr (you save $8.00!).

6. 20% Off WordPress Security Upgrades

One of the services I provide here along with an associate are WordPress security upgrades to lockdown your WordPress installation some and help prevent malicious jerks crack into your blog. In my experience, many bloggers don’t think their blog is a target so they don’t worry about it. But they’re wrong.

Get 20% off ($49.95 $39.95) from now through the 4th of July weekend 2009.

Why Purchase From WP Blog Host?

If you’re not yet a WP Blog Host customer and you’re a blogger, here are some reasons why you might want to consider joining the club.

• Full range of hosting and domain products you can grow with.
• Live 24/7 phone and email technical support for our hosting and domain products. (480) 624-2500
• Resident WordPress blogger (yup, that’s me) who helps customers when they need WordPress or blogging help.
• We’re the coolest web host on the planet!

Related posts:

1. Did You Know You Get These With Domain Name Registration?
2. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
3. Increase Your WordPress Blog’s Security By Running It Through SSL

Most of the not-so-unwritten-rules of blogging dictate that you should try to avoid directly selling to your readers, and for the most part that is true.

But every now and then I remind myself that if I don’t talk about our brand from time to time, many will not even know the, “Hey, did you know WP Blog Host has free hosting included with domain name registrations?”

I bet many of my blog readers didn’t know that fact because, well, I don’t talk about it much here. Blogs are really good at helping build relationships, not product feature selling.

You probably also didn’t know that here at WP Blog Host .COM domains are only $7.49 for the first year. The going rate I see around Internet-ville these days for .COM domain names hovers around $10 a pop.

Here are 3 more features our customers get when they purchase a domain name from us (view all here):

• Photo Album – Share photos and memories online.
• Economy Hosting – This free version of our Economy Hosting Plan includes just about all the same hosting features as the full hosting package except there are just a few link ads to our company on your pages.
• 1 Free Email Account – We’re not talking a mere 2MB storage email address, domain customers get 1GB of storage, SSL encryption of passwords and data, and the email address is your-email@yourdomain.com.

Like I said before, blogs are better suited at building relationships, not product feature selling.

I promise not to pump out too many of these types of articles, but then again I sit here asking myself, “That’s great that I’m building relationships, but wouldn’t it be nice if the people I build relationships with know a little about what more we have to offer?”

I’ll tell you one thing I know, I’m thinking too much!

Related posts:

1. WP Blog Host Domain, Blog Security, & Hosting Promotions – Get'em While Their Hot
2. 10.5 Reasons Why WP Blog Host is the Web Hosting Samurai
3. 8+ Drawbacks to Free Web Hosting