As some of you may be aware I had recently shifted one of my big sites from dreamhost to hostgator. Moving webhosts is always a painful process, I have jotted some points below from my experience which may help you move from one webhost to another in a seamless manner.

1. First things first – Change TTL for your domain to some very low value ( at least 2-3 days before moving) so that DNS propagation could be very fast.
2. Some people suggest to add the new name servers at #2, #3 priority to your older webhost name servers panel.
3. Create a new database at the new webhost and assign a user to it. It’s always a good idea to use a fresh database for a given site.
4. Make sure to update the MX records in your new web panel. This is important otherwise your domain specific emails won’t work.
5. If your host is hostgator and you use Google Apps, make sure to ask hostgator to open various ports. For security sake, many ports on Hostgator are either completely blocked or are only available for outbound emails. You can use a query on SSH telnet mail.authsmtp.com 26 to check for example whether the port 26 is open for mail.authsmtp.com. Similarly telnet pop.gmail.com 9595 to check port 9595.
6. Configure various cron jobs you may have created earlier.
7. Change the database info on your config.php files. I had to change at 3 locations dap-config.php, osticket and wp-config.php
8. Make sure your DNS settings looks the same as they were with your earlier webhost.

Bonus: Here are some commonly used port numbers available for Hostgator

What other precautions/tips would you suggest while moving webhosts?

8 Important Steps to note while moving webhost is a post from ReviewOfWeb

I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts about the 3 reasons I love hostgator. The post generated a good interest so here goes my in-depth review of Hostgator from shared web hosting point of view (not for VPS or dedicated servers though I have heard good words about them too)

Choosing between various plans on Hostgator

There are 3 shared hosting plans available on Hostgator. Hatchling, Baby and Business. All others parameters being same, Hatchling plan will only allow 1 domain to be hosted with Hostgator while Baby and Business plans will allow an unlimited number of domains. Business plan has an added advantage that you get a unique IP address for your website along with a free SSL certificate from Comodo.

Shared webservers are notorious for hosting “borderline illegal” websites. This may result in your website getting flagged by ISPs for no fault of yours. Having a unique IP address for your website would therefore be safer. Tip: Hostgator mentions that they provide a unique IP for $2/month for Baby accounts. Under new Hostgator terms, however,  you need to remember that this will only be given out when you purchase it along with a SSL certificate. Hence, if you wish to get a unique IP for your website I suggest you to go with Business plan straightaway.

Hostgator’s Sign Up Process

It’s a zero hassle process. You would need to supply a domain name that becomes your primary domain name. (You can change this primary domain later). To make sure that you are the real owner of a genuine credit card, they may ask you some verification questions after the payment is made. Make sure you don’t store or host anything illegal on Hostgator servers. They are quick to remove such sites. In fact this is good for honest site owners like us, who don’t have to fear about their shared server IP address getting flagged by various internet service providers(ISPs).

Start a new site or transfer an already existing site

Once you’ve signed up with them, you can either start a new site or transfer an existing site from some other webhost. One website transfer is provided free of cost. Make sure to avail this facility within 30 days of opening a new account with them. I used this service for myself while I transferred my site from DreamHost to Hostgator and it was a real quick process. You just need to supply them with your FTP id of both the accounts (and leave any instructions) on this form

Customer Support

One of the best customer support I have seen in the web hosting industry. When a company cares for its customers it shows. At any given time you can find there would be more than 50 customer support specialists helping customers on LIVE chat support. It normally take 1-2 min to get connected to a real person and get polite and really helpful responses. Customer care folks do know what they are doing.

Strong Servers

With Dreamhost, my wordpress sites started generating all sort of errors and time outs at around 2000 page views/day mark. With Hostgator, I am comfortably sitting at around 4000 page views/day with no signs of errors and control panel looking as healthy as ever.

While Hostgator provides unlimited bandwith and storage for your servers, you need to take care that number of concurrent running processes should not go beyond 25 and CPU, Memory usage stays within 25%.

Bonus Offer for ReviewOfWeb Readers

We have partnered with Hostgator and are thus providing a super high bonus worth $600 if you sign up through this step-by-step process.

Hostgator Webhosting Review and Bonus is a post from ReviewOfWeb

A great service offered by the folks at ManageWP. You can manage all your sites, clone a site, take backups of your sites all under a single dashboard. Check our video review below.

If you have more than one wordpress blog, you’d love this is a post from ReviewOfWeb

Not all web developers understand search engine optimization. The process is actually easy yet complicated at the same time, but these 3 steps I’m about to tell you will get you started right away.

1. Fill Your Site With Quality Unique Contents

The best thing you can do to prepare your site for search engine optimization is to fill your site with quality contents. Write articles, how-to’s, and other informational contents and post them at your site. Not only you will optimize your site for search engine optimization purposes, you will also entertain visitors and keep them coming back. If your site is an online store, you can still add a blog that discuss products you are selling as part of your site. Remember, the contents have to be unique; if you don’t have time to write them hire freelance content writers to do the job for you instead of going to online article directories and copy stuffs.

2. Update, Update, Update!

One of the key to successful SEO campaign is regular site update. Yes, you still have to cope with maintaining updates according to sets of keywords you are using to keep your site optimized, but you should update regularly. Again, this simple step can also be done with the help of freelancers if you don’t have the time or expertise to do it yourself, and it will keep your visitors entertained while your search engine rankings improve.

3. Use Keyword Phrases In Your Title Tag

This may sounds simple, but pages with keyword phrases in their title tags will enjoy better search engine rankings. Don’t push your efforts too far by spreading keywords all over the content or page; just add it as part of the title tag and present some in the actual content. Don’t worry about keyword placements too much, and keep your contents — and pages — readable to visitors.

Simple, right? Go right ahead and optimize your site for search engine crawlers.

SEO for Dummies: 3 Steps You Can Do to Start an SEO Campaign is a post from ReviewOfWeb

List based drop down menu is one of the most popular site ornaments, and a lot of sites are using it as their primary navigation tool. If you want to use list based menu on your site as well, follow this tutorial I’m about to present to you and create your own with CSS/HTML in a matter of minutes.

Let us start with making the list to work with. Use the following HTML code as your guide.

<div id=”nav”>

<ul>

<li class=”first”><a href=”#”>Home</a></li>

<li><a href=”#”>Blog</a></li>

<li><a href=”#”>Services</a>

<ul>

<li><a href=”#”>SEO</a></li>

<li><a href=”#”>Internet Marketing</a></li>

<li><a href=”#”>Web Contents</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><a href=”#”>Contact Us</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

You should notice the “nav” id that will be used in your CSS codes as identifier. Let us continue with setting up some basic CSS codes for your menu. First, set up the basics for #nav to lay down some ground formatting for your list based menu.

*{ margin:0px; padding: 0px; }

#nav {

font-family: arial, sans-serif;

position: relative;

width: 390px;

height:56px;

font-size:14px;

color:#999;

margin: 0 auto;

}

#nav ul {

list-style-type: none;

}

Add the following piece of CSS code to make your list based menu float. This will make integrating the menu to your site a lot easier.

#nav ul li {

float: left

position: relative;

}

Add the following code to your CSS to make the list clickable as a whole — instead of just the text — and add separating borders to the design. Of course, you can change colors and border settings used.

#nav ul li a {

text-align: center;

border-right:1px solid #e9e9e9;

padding:20px;

display:block;

text-decoration:none;

color:#999;

}

The following CSS codes will allow you to format child nodes properly and create a smooth dropdown effect.

#nav ul li ul {

display: none

}

#nav ul li:hover ul {

display: block;

position: absolute;

}

Last but not least, add the following code to your CSS to set the hover state of the nodes.

#nav ul li:hover ul li a {

display:block;

background:#12aeef;

color:#ffffff;

width: 110px;

text-align: center;

border-bottom: 1px solid #f2f2f2;

border-right: none;

}

#nav ul li:hover ul li a:hover {

background:#6dc7ec;

color:#fff;

}

When it comes to integrating the menu to your site, all you have to do is insert the CSS codes into your CSS file and add the HTML list code wherever on the page within a container. The new list based dropdown menu will be a nice addition to your already intuitive design.

Learn How to Make List Based Menu with CSS/HTML is a post from ReviewOfWeb

The Observer is back with another great post, just for you! We at Review of Web are participating in Daniel Scocco’s Daily Blog Tips Group Writing Project: 2009 in Review, and we took our time to pick 20 of the best web applications available in 2009. Let’s get crackin’ shall we?

1. Adobe Photoshop Online | https://www.photoshop.com/

Photoshop has been the most intuitive photo editing software for years, and Adobe is now launching an online version of this amazing software to help you edit, manage, and share photos online. You can upload images to your account and edit them using web interface very similar to the offline version of the software, and then share them with friends and colleagues.

2. CurdBee | http://curdbee.com/

If you are looking for a solution to manage invoices without hassle, CurdBee is the place to go. You can create and send invoices to customers and input confirmed payments as you go. The site offers easy, fast and secure online billing experience.

3. MediaFire | http://www.mediafire.com/

Looking for a reliable place to host your files? MediaFire is definitely worth checking out. This web app is very simple for everyday use but offers a lot of features even advanced users would really love. Use it to host your files and share them with visitors or friends.

4. ReInvirogate | http://www.reinvigorate.net/

ReInvirogate is the new way of tracking your site’s performance. Forget about old-school tracking scripts; ReInvirogate will give you so much more than just the amount of visitors coming to your site.

5. HowCast | http://www.howcast.com/

Publishing you own how-to videos or looking for one about any particular topic? Visit this video streaming site specializing in how-to videos.

6. Moodstream | http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/

Moodstream by Getty Images is an online collaboration platform for designers and creative workers. You can brainstorm ideas and search for images, footages, and audios at the same time.

7. AWebber | http://www.aweber.com/

Email marketing is definitely one of the oldest tricks in the book, and what could be best than managing your entire email marketing campaign from a single intuitive and comprehensive web application, right?

8. Wufoo | http://wufoo.com/

Need web forms but don’t have HTML coding skills? Wufoo will build them for you in no time at all.

9. Carbonmade | http://www.carbonmade.com/

Carbonmade is basically an online portfolio platform that you can use to show off your work. It is probably the easiest way to display your portfolio online and attracts more clients.

10. Backpack | http://backpackit.com/

Share information with your team using Backpack’s online intranet platform allowing you to manage your documents, discussions, and schedules in one place all the time.

11. Google Wave | https://wave.google.com/wave

Although the app is still in preview, Google Wave is definitely one of the best future online collaboration platforms available.

12. Celoxis | http://www.celoxis.com/

Another online collaboration and project management platform designed to help you handle big projects with ease.

13. Evernote | https://www.evernote.com/

Need to carry your notes all the time? Visit Evernote and find your problem solved instantly; the iPhone and mobile interface of this web app will enable you to access your notes anytime, anywhere.

14. Meebo | http://www.meebo.com/

Multinetwork instant messaging platform is the new hype, and Meebo is definitely offering one of the best web-based IM available.

15. Emusic | http://www.emusic.com/

Care for some nice tunes? Visit Emusic and find virtually any song you are looking for.

16. Netflix | http://www.netflix.com/

If movies and TV series are what you love, let Netflix stream them to your computers instantly.

17. Ask.com | http://www.ask.com/

No more unanswered questions; you have Ask.com hosting answers to countless possible questions you may be asking.

18. Zoho | http://www.zoho.com/

Zoho has transformed from a simple collaboration platform into a full-featured web productivity suites; you can do virtually anything with Zoho’s line of web applications.

19. Backpack | http://basecamphq.com/

Project management, collaboration, and task software provided by Backpack are definitely one of the best available.

20. Google Docs | http://documents.google.com/

This web app may seem simple, but simplicity has always been Google’s strong suit. Edit documents and share them with colleagues swiftly.

20 Best Web Apps of 2009 is a post from ReviewOfWeb

What is a virtual agent?

A virtual agent sometimes called a virtual smart agent, or an intelligent agent, is a script which is programmed to be able to perform a wide variety of tasks such as providing information regarding the services on offer, or respond to user query, or as in a large number of cases, provide sales services.

One major advantage of using such scripts is that they eliminate the need for a human representative to be available for customers’ needs. These scripts are completely automated and therefore, once installed successfully, they work independently of any kind of human involvement towards running the script or moderating it. This also helps service providers by the way of reducing costs that could have been otherwise incurred on hiring individuals to perform the same task.

There are various vendors of such scripts with the effectiveness and features provided by such scripts varying widely across vendors. Almost all of the scripts available have features such as having custom agent for your site, log un-answered queries on your website among many others.

Which virtual agent service we prefer?

Virtual Sales Assistant (VSA). The VSA, along with providing all features like its competitors, also provides some additional features which are unique to it.

The VSA allows you to train the virtual agent to handle various types of queries. Once the training is completed, you can analyze the performance of your virtual agent by making use of the in-depth statistical data provided by VSA. Incorporating HTML in chat windows is also an option provided by the VSA. This helps in providing better support in the form of links or web addresses of related information.

VSA also has the ability to integrate videos into your chat script which can help in understanding the concept of the sales agent. It also allows you to customize the script and insert and/or edit the default names provided by the script. VSA is superior to most of its competitors in the sense that it allows for an unlimited installation of the script, which translates to the fact that once the script has been bought, you can integrate it to any number of your websites. This essentially helps you in case you sell more than one product or are involved in marketing the same product through different websites.

VSA provides all these features and facilities along with a lifetime money back guarantee at a minimal one time price of $97. The price also includes a variety of “How to” videos and source files of the script. At its price, VSA offers the best value for money among its competition.

Check out Virtual Sales Assistant

Related article: How to integrate chat box within a website?

What is a virtual agent? Review of Virtual Sales Assistant is a post from ReviewOfWeb

I will be attending Google SearchMasters conference ’09 going to be held at Bangalore,India on 28th/Feb/09. 

I have attended and spoken at many conferences earlier that are related to my profession – Software Engineering. But this is the first time, I will be attending conference related to webmasters. I am pretty excited about it. Do let me know if you are coming.

For those who were not able to register earlier or are unable to come to this conference, don’t worry. Google India will be posting the conference videos and updates at its official blog.

I "ll also try to come up with the details here soon after the conference. Subscribe Now to not miss any further details.

Join me at Google’s SearchMasters Conference ’09 is a post from ReviewOfWeb

If you are a small to mid-size blogger or an online entrepreneur, in all probability you must be taking services of a webhost to host your blogs/websites. These web hosting providers put your sites on a server that is already hosting dozens of other sites. [Unless you opt for a premium plan with a dedicated server]. This may result in your sites getting down frequently or sites running very slow.

If that is the case, you may want to check whether it is because of other sites hosted on the same server as yours, eating up your shared space.

Enter YouGetSignal – This online free service lets you know about other websites that are hosted on the same web-server as your site – using reverse IP check. To start checking simply, enter your site name and hit ‘Check’. You will see all shared sites on one page. Check out alexa and or traffic stats of those sites. If their traffic stats makes you feel they might be the culprit, ask your host to move onto some other less cloggy server.

For more creative souls amongst us, this tools can also be use to check where and how big companies like google store their sites and what other sub-domain are hosted on the same web server. The screenshot below shows that there are 1053 domains hosted on the same web server as www.google.com

YouGetSignal: Check whoelse is hosting website on your shared web server is a post from ReviewOfWeb