As you may or may not know, the parent company of Rate Your Web Hosting also provides internet marketing services for a variety of different web properties, including this one.

In the past, TEB Media has relied on several tool sets to deliver client reports and monitor results. As a small operation, it is imperative that this process is as automated as possible. The down side of this is that most services use a pay per month model. This isn’t a problem when the workload is heavy, but as clients leave or sites change focus, you are often left with a bill that just doesn’t make financial sense.

The current owner of TEB Media used to work for a company who used Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) exclusively for client reporting. Recently, while comparing income to expenses it was clear that a piece of seo software would make more sense versus a subscription service. It was at that point that they decided to revisit AWR as a possible solution.

The nice thing is that they offer a 30 day free trial. This is perfect to setup at the beginning of the month with all client data and let it run up until reporting time. No doubt they planned this on purpose. As it turns out, AWR covers all the features of the monthly solution and then some.

AWR Current Keyword Rank Chart

It’s been almost two years since they last visited this software. Quite a bit has changed. Most notably, the interface seems to have been cleaned up quite considerably. The one complaint from prior use was that the learning curve could be a bit steep for someone coming from a more basic solution, for example rank checker plugin for Firefox. The rank chart (shown to the left) is easy to read and give you, at a glance, a graphic representation of how your keywords are performing for a given website.

Aside from the obvious rank checking, there are several other features that make this a home run as far as reporting tools are concerned:

1) Integrated Google Analytics Support: Who cares how you are ranking if you don’t know what keywords are driving traffic. This features shows you at a glance where it makes the most sense to spend your time.

2) Automated Reporting: This is huge. TEB Media is a small operation. It’s nice to be able to set it and forget it so to speak when it comes to report generating. Reports always go out at the same time, might as well have them waiting for you to send to clients.

3) Research: This is by far one of the most tedious jobs of any internet marketing agency. Finding the right keywords to target for each client. It’s so nice to be able to do the research and then link the campaign right withing the same program.

The three features above were all available with the aforementioned subscription model. AWR is the only program that gives them to you for a one time fee. This is something that makes a bottom line very very happy.

So research and reporting are one thing. But everybody knows that linkbuilding is the name of the game in search engine optimization. The same company that released AWR has another product, Advanced Link Manager (ALM) that helps to automate and streamline this rather tedious process.

Main Window For Advanced Link Manager

What exactly is the point of using a link management program?  The oldest and most common method of keeping track of your link building campaigns involved spreadsheets, lots of research and constantly updating these spreadsheets.  The problem is, that work is time consuming.  Oftentimes you only end up getting a few solid links anyways.  The value is severely diminished vs the time you spend working on acquisition.

ALM takes on most of the grunt work involved in link building.  The first, and possible most important thing ALM does is it makes sure your website is optimized for the keywords you are targeting.  You can build all the links in the world to a website, but if it the site isn’t relevant for what you are targeting, it’ll never rank.  It’s as simple as that.

This feature isn’t just about content.  ALM also makes sure your site doesn’t have any nagging technical issues preventing it from ranking.  This is so important and one of the most often overlooked factors in onsite SEO.  ALM will crawl your site and give you an exact picture of pages indexed and overall domain quality.  This will help you get started on fixing those issues BEFORE building links.

Once your site is technically sound and your content is solid, the real fun begins.  ALM will help manage your linkbuilding campaign in the following ways:

1) Find potential, relevant link partners via Google searches on very advanced criteria

2) Compose and send email link requests via templates.  Anyone in this industry knows link requests are very hit or miss.  You can easily send 10-20 link requests and only receive one or two solid links.  Automate the process and this becomes less of a frustration.

3) Personalized linkbuilding reports.  Imagine showing your client beautiful reports of exactly how you are working hard to build relevant links to their website.  One of the toughest things to sell a client on is the actual work that goes into an SEO campaign.  This gives the client a very specific view of how you are spending their money each month.

This article really only scratches the surface of what these programs can do for your business.  We strongly encourage you to give the 30 day free trials a shot in your personal or corporate business.  You won’t be sorry.

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Whether you’re building in Dreamweaver or Frontpage, Start Logic is ready to host your website. For $3.95 per month, you get everything you would expect from a top tier host provider.

There’s an easy to use site builder that comes with each account, in case you don’t have access to a third-party application. Just point and click then your good to go.

It’s strange to see limits to the basic account. Hosting providers never admits limits. Start Logic comes out and says that with your account you’re capped at 600 GB of data transfer and 60 GB of storage.

It isn’t the limits that shock me; all hosting providers have limits even if they don’t admit them. It’s the honesty that Start Logic treats their non-paying prospects with which is shocking… and I respect and appreciate such honesty.

If you’re looking for a VPS, you can snag one with Start Logic for $29.95/month. With a VPS you’ll have access to 2,000 GB of data transfer and one private IP address to use. Plus, you get the standard freebies: $75 Google Adwords credit and a $25 YSM credit.

The moral is this: Start Logic is a solid provider. There are better hosting providers but there are worst as well. At the very least, you’ll know you’re dealing with an honest provider working with Start Logic…if you so choose to go that route.

Bluehost is one of the most popular hosting providers today for one reason: they provide excellent service. The price could be better ($6.95/month for the basic package) but what they lack in savings they make up for in features.

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Your domain is free forever. With Bluehost, you never have to pay the annual domain registration fees. Plus, you can add on domains to your heart’s content. There is no limit and no restrictions. And the basic shared accounts are uniquely architected to perform just like a virtual private server. This is a proprietary solution, and protects your websites from the actions (shady or otherwise) of other clients on the same box. This technology is completely free, and every account with BlueHost uses it.

You can get help with your questions 24/7 (even on holidays!). Average wait time to get support is a mere 30 seconds. Plus, their support staff is based in the U.S., so there is never risk of things getting lost in translation.

And for the more technologically included, you’re also given Secure Shell access, as well as
override .htaccess support. Throw in cronjob customization, cPanel and support for most server-side languages and you have a solid hosting provider on your hands.

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With Fatcow Hosting, you get an account for $3.67 a month, and that includes a free domain name. There are no hidden charges or setup fees. And setup, by the way is instant; order an account and have a site up in the matter of minutes.

The accounts are well suited for business-oriented websites. You have instant access to Paypal shopping cart integration, a shared SSL, PowerPay and the ShopSite Online store platform. You also can fire up Wordpress, Gallery2 phpBB or Joomla without any fuss at all.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Fatcow Hosting

FatCow’s website design is fun and engaging, which is a pretty accurate depiction of the company culture. They go out of their way to make sure their clients always have a smile on their face when they think about FatCow. And they’ve been around since 1998, so they must be doing something right.

The facility is 100% wind powered. That earns them brownie points from me, for making an effort towards saving the environment.

FatCow lists you in the Yellow Pages and gives you ad credits from Google and Yahoo! just for getting started. And, as is standard for hosting providers, you’re covered by a 30 day money back guarantee if you find yourself unsatisfied.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Fatcow Hosting

$1.99 per month. Need I say more? I’m not sure how webhosting pad is able to operate at such a low cost, but they’re pulling it off somehow. And this isn’t taking into account the unlimited hosting space, unlimited bandwidth, and unlimited domain add-ons that comes stock with every account.

Webhosting pad gives you $200 worth of marketing credits from Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MyAds as another incentive (as if the price wasn’t enough). And you’re given a money back guarantee, just in case you aren’t happy for some strange reason.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Webhosting Pad

But the proof is in the pudding. They’ve won various rewards for delivering on their promises, including the prestigious WebHost Magazine Editor’s Choice Award.

For a few extra bucks, you can upgrade to the power plan plus account. This gives you a unique SSL certificate, advanced web statistics and a couple of other goodies.

And in terms of specs, the datacenter is built around Dual Xeon Intel Raid Protected Servers. That translates to rock solid uptime and reliability. They’ll also do weekly backups on your behalf, just in case the unexpected happens. Accounts are script heavy, including WordPress, Joomla, PHP Nuke, message boards, Mambo, phpForm Generator, an email autoresponder and more. And did I mention the price?

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For a limited time, SuperGreen Hosting is practically giving away server space with a price of $3.95/ month. Each of these basic accounts offer unlimited bandwidth, unlimited storage space and unlimited email accounts.

Plus, you get a free domain name just for signing up. But the freebies don’t end there; you’ll also get $50 ad credit with Google, $25 ad credit with Yahoo!, $50 ad credit with Facebook and $50 ad credit with MySpace.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Super Green Hosting

Each account comes with Cpanel… which is perfect for the novice webmaster. It makes installing everything from blogs (WordPress, Joomla, etc.) to forums to wikis a breeze.

If you don’t know how to build a site, they offer a basic WYSIWYG site builder within your account. You just point, click and voila! You’ll be up and running in no time.

The company is environment-friendly and uses only energy efficient servers. Their facilities are 100% carbon neutral; just one more reason to go with them. It isn’t every day you come across an ethical hosting company.

And if you’re not happy with your service, for any reason, you can get your money back at anytime. No contract to wait through. No questions and no hassles.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Super Green Hosting

Omnis cloud hosting uses datacenters managed by One Wilshire… the main Internet hub for the entire Pacific Rim. What that means for you is that your sites will load faster, which leads to higher search rankings. (You did know Google uses website speed in their algorithm, right?)

Omnis also offers the ability to get a basic plan with a private IP address for only $1.99 more. This is a big step above shared hosting, since with shared hosting (multiple customers crowded onto the same IP) other people’s spammy websites can poison your search engine rankings.

Omnis cloud hosting eliminates that possibility. As per usual, you can use one base domain per account but you get unlimited add-on domains. With the unmetered disk space and data transfer each account gets, you can jam your account with sites with little worry.

Click Here For A Special Offer From Omnis

And your web presence with Omnis won’t go down. They offer a rock solid guarantee for 99.9% uptime. And since its cloud computing, even large traffic spikes are unlikely to knock your host offline. Omnis is also an ICAAN accredited registrar, so you can grab domain names directly from them at agreeable prices. In the 11 years since their founding, they’ve maintained a perfect BBB rating.

Definitely worth a closer look.

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This was a great week for web hosting control panels here at RateYourWebHosting.com. Ever since Sunday, I have been constantly churning out reviews of the best web hosting control panels in the industry.

While I haven’t reviewed every one yet, there is still time to review the remaining few. vDeck and cPanel are in the top 3 web hosting control panels that I reviewed and I figured they would be great opponents in a web hosting control panel showdown.

What better way to wrap up a busy week of web hosting posts than to have two of the leading pieces of web hosting software battle it out for the recognition of being better than the other? You’ll only find this here at RateYourWebhosting.com!

Of course, that’s because we’re spontaneous like that.

cPanel Summarized

cPanel is very easy to use, even if you’ve never used it before. It’s known for being one of the easiest web hosting control panels to master. Not to mention, it’s also one of the most secure ones ever seen in the industry to date.

It contains many great features such as the ability to manage multiple websites as well as get the latest website statistic from your control panel. It’s great for managing your web hosting account, but it’s not able to manage any website marketing projects that you may have going on.

vDeck Summarized

vDeck is a very simple web hosting control panel, but cPanel is designed more for the 21st century than vDeck is in terms of being a web hosting control panel. Sure, vDeck has many integrations for website marketing than cPanel, but that’s about the only edge that it really has on the best web hosting control panel in the world.

The best web hosting control panel of the two?

cPanel wins this battle without a doubt. It’s definitely more cutting edge than vDeck and it provides the best web hosting management experience that any consumers have ever had the opportunity to experience.

vDeck is slowly losing its spot in the world of web hosting, mainly due to the lack of innovation. I guess after you get so old, you end up getting burned out and not caring if they provide the best solution on the market.

When it comes to finding the best web hosting control panels in the industry, this can be a rather daunting task. However, I’ve been in this industry long enough to have the opportunity to have a hands-on experience with the best control panels that the web hosting industry has ever seen.

I’ve taken the years of my experience and judged all of the control panels that are popular to see which ones are truly the best and which ones don’t make it to my top 3 list of web hosting control panels here at Rate Your Web Hosting.

Here’s the outcome of this control panel showdown.

#1 Web Hosting Control Panel – cPanel

cPanel is the best web hosting control panel in the industry. There’s no question about it!

It’s simple for new users to learn since it contains a lot of helpful cPanel training videos and it contains the advanced features that web development experts demand in order to get the job done right.

If you want the best web hosting experience in the world, cPanel hosting is definitely the best way for you to go.

#2 Web Hosting Control Panel – DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin isn’t as neatly laid out as cPanel, but it’s just as clean when it comes to providing a straight-forward approach to managing web hosting accounts.

DirectAdmin is an awesome web hosting control panel for business and individuals alike, providing the opportunity for diversity where it’s needed.

Just like cPanel, they provide great support documentation on a website dedicated to providing the most reliable DirectAdmin information on the net.

#3 Web Hosting Control Panel – vDeck

vDeck is used by a lot of the older web hosting providers, mainly because it is, well one of the oldest web hosting control panels around. It’s not as good as the above two web hosting control panels, but it provides its users with the tools that they need to manage their websites.

There are many other web hosting control panels available, and there continues to be new ones released. If you want to stay updated on the latest web hosting control panels, make sure you keep coming back here to RateYourWebHosting.com.

If you would like more in-depth control panel reviews, you can find them by browsing the site. I’ve taken a lot of time out reviewing the most popular control panels in the industry.

Don’t forget to let me know if you want to see a particular web hosting control panel reviewed, I’d be more than happy to do one for you!

While cPanel may be my favorite web hosting control panel of all, there’s still going to be room in my heart for DirectAdmin. The main reason for this is that it’s a very lightweight and cost-friendly web hosting control panel.

Whether you’re using it for your shared hosting or you have your own dedicated server, there is always a great opportunity that you can take advantage of easily by using DirectAdmin as your primary web hosting control panel.

Why do I say all of this? Well, DirectAdmin is pretty much self-explanatory if you look at the many features it comes bundled with. But I know you need a friend to give you the best DirectAdmin overview possible so that you can see if you can truly benefit from using it.

Here we go!

Is DirectAdmin easy to use, even for newbies?

The interface of DirectAdmin is most definitely setup with beginners in mind. There’s no confusing mazes to figure out. When you login to your DirectAdmin account, everything that you need for web hosting management is conveniently right at your fingertips.

While the layout is basic, it promotes simplicity at the same time.

What’s the most powerful DirectAdmin benefits?

DirectAdmin is one powerful piece of web hosting software and it was hard for me to pick out the best features of all, but here’s what I ended up with.

• Extremely EASY To Use
  DirectAdmin is one of the most user-friendly web hosting control panels that’s ever been introduced on the market. DA has been doing it for years, and they make the world of web hosting as easy as possible for beginners to grasp.
• One Click Installs Optional
  Most web hosts will include this optional add-on for DirectAdmin automatically. It allows you to install the most popular website applications in a single click without having to get all of the headaches that are usually involved with manual script installations.
• Website Stats
  Inside the DirectAdmin control panel, there are some pretty cool stats of your websites and your hosting account that you’re sure to find useful when you need to get down to the nitty gritty.
• Very Powerful
  DirectAdmin is made with scalability in mind. It’s easy when first starting out and powerful enough to handle the biggest tasks that it has ever been forced to face. DirectAdmin is one of the most powerful web hosting control panels currently on the market.

What’s the bad side of DirectAdmin?

DirectAdmin is just like cPanel, there really isn’t a bad side. It’s a great web hosting control panel that has been developed over the course of several years to help DA users experience the best web hosting experience possible.

How does DirectAdmin add up?

DirectAdmin comes in right behind cPanel. It’s definitely one of the top picks for anyone needing a powerful web hosting control panel and it can get the job done effectively. If you want something solid, DirectAdmin is as solid as a rock.