Saturday, November 9, 2019

Hosting Coupons – 2019

Looking for the best web hosting coupons and deals? Then look no further; we have them all in one place for you.

I have negotiated some exclusive deals for Makeawebsitehub.com readers so whether you’re looking to save yourself a few dollars per month on a kick ass VPS or just looking for a cost effective shared hosting provider for your new blog then you’ll find all the best deals and promotions here.

Hostgator Coupon Codes
Save between 25% and 60% on Hostgator web hosting plans with these deals

WP Engine Deals
Check out the latest deals and managed WordPress hosting offers from WP Engine.

Godaddy Renewal Codes
Renewing your Godaddy domains or hosting? Check these coupons

Bluehost Coupons
Sign up to BlueHost today for just $2.95 per month and get a FREE domain name too.

Domain.com Coupon Codes
Check out the latest deals, coupons and special offers from Domain.com – 25% OFF with Code “SiteHub”

Namecheap Renewal Code
Renewing your Namecheap domains names. Check out these great coupons.

FAQs –  Getting Started, Picking a Web Host, and Hosting Prices
How much does web hosting cost?
Whatever you’re looking to pay for web hosting, chances are that we can find a host willing to take your money. Broadly speaking, hosting prices can range anywhere from $1 each month all the way to $500 monthly.

Although just about every hosting provider markets their services on a per-month basis, most offer discounts to customers who sign up for extended periods of time. The longer period of time that you commit to a host, the larger your discount will be. Some discounts appear in as short as three months, while the biggest savings can sometimes be found by agreeing to a three-year plan.

Shared hosting plans are the most affordable, usually costing $5 or less each month. Prices for VPS hosting plans can vary pretty widely, depending on the amount of computing power or level of managed services. On average, however, $20 per month is a reasonable starting point for cheap VPS hosting.

Site owners looking for dedicated servers, however, can expect to pay quite a bit more. Dedicated hosting plans typically start with price tags between $75 and $100 monthly for a basic server.

Which hosting plan should I choose?
With so many hosting providers and services from which to choose, selecting a specific plan can be daunting. Identifying appropriate hosting services largely depends on how much traffic you expect your website to attract.

If you have no clue where to start, you’ll probably want to seek out a shared hosting plan. Most individual developers, bloggers, and professionals don’t need much computing power and are best served by the most affordable hosting plans that can handle modest audiences.

When trying to choose between hosts, compare providers based on uptime guarantees and the responsiveness of the company’s support teams. Be aware of user experience-impacting features such as the number of domains or websites you can have on one account or whether the host offers free transfers or backups. For the most part, hosts will offer adequate storage, bandwidth, and memory — don’t get bogged down in those metrics.

If you expect your traffic to grow to the point where you might want to look into VPS or dedicated plans, we highly recommend finding a full-service host that will seamlessly upgrade your account without any hassle. Take it from us, few things are more tedious and aggravating than moving your site from one host to another.

What types of payment do web hosting providers accept?
As we alluded to in our response to the first question, web hosts have a vested interest in making it easy for customers to give them money. The vast majority of providers will accept credit cards, with many others also welcoming payments from services such as PayPal. A handful of hosts will accept checks, money orders, or wire transfers, but not many. Regardless, we can say with confidence that it’s rare for a web host to credit your account upon receipt of a cash deposit.

Is month-to-month billing available?
Most providers advertise their services in terms of month-to-month prices, but in reality, most will apply that rate and bill customers for a full year. A few hosts offer month-long plans, but be prepared to pay a little extra for the privilege.

Monthly billing is a more common practice in VPS, cloud, or dedicated hosting plans because of the scalable memory, storage, and bandwidth resources. If this payment schedule is important to you, be sure to read the fine print when signing up with a host.

How does domain pricing work?
Particularly at the shared hosting level, many hosting providers throw in a free domain registration (or domain transfer) when a new customer purchases a plan. Domain name registrations must be renewed each year, however, and the perk usually only covers your first year. A select few hosts, including WebHostingHub, will cover your domain name fees for the life of your account. Otherwise, expect subsequent renewal fees to cost between $10 and $15 for typical domain names and hosting providers.

The same fee will be deducted from any refunds you request from hosts, usually plus an administrative fee. This allows you to retain ownership of the domain, in case you’d like to transfer your account to a new hosting provider.

Heads up: Not all hosts enable customers to register domains — the vast majority do, but you should certainly check that feature before committing to hosting your site for a year. You can always register a domain separately from your website, be sure to check my domain registrar reviews.

What is domain privacy, and is it included in most hosting packages?
Simply put, domain privacy protects your personal information by keeping it out of a publicly accessible database. The global organization in charge of overseeing domain name ownership requires a name, mailing address, phone number, and email address to be associated with every registration. The data is compiled into the WHOIS database, which can be searched and mined by anyone for information.

Domain privacy is almost always an add-on service, usually costing an additional $10 to $15 per year per domain, that substitutes your personal information with the contact information of either your hosting provider or their domain registration partner. That way, you won’t be contacted by spammers and direct marketers or attacked by identity thieves and others with malicious intent.

What is an uptime guarantee, and does it cost extra?
Uptime, which is basically another word for reliability or availability, is simultaneously critically important and one of the least worrisome components for most people’s quest for a new hosting plan.

Uptime guarantees are essentially a promise that your hosting provider will make sure the infrastructure supporting your website or application is working properly and making your content available online for a prescribed amount of time. This is especially important for business websites and online stores, as time directly equates to revenue and positive customer relationships.

Uptime guarantees are included with hosting contracts, technically without an extra charge. Hosting providers use uptime guarantees as a marketable feature to attract new customers. However, plans with better uptime guarantees tend to cost slightly more than those at the industry average of 99.9% or lower.

Obviously, 100% uptime is ideal, but few hosts can pull that off without charging an arm and a leg. That rate is typically reserved for premium VPS and dedicated services.

Most shared hosting customers will do perfectly well with 99.9% network uptime, which effectively means a site will be unavailable for roughly 45 minutes each month. Anything less than what is colloquially called “three nines” might be cause for concern, while a competitively priced plan offering 99.99% or even 99.999% is a good bargain.

Can I get help upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server when I’m ready?
Of course. Hosts are happy to see customers succeed and move through the ranks of services. Just as several hosting providers offer free site transfers or migrations to welcome new customers to shared servers, the companies have a vested interest in getting you up and running on the more powerful hardware.

Help is usually just a chat, phone call, or support ticket away. Reputable hosts will help you choose the best plan for your hosting needs, configure your virtual or dedicated server, and get to work transferring your files and databases.

Is managed hosting worth the added cost?
Like so many of our answers to these questions, our response here is along the lines of the ultra-decisive “it depends.” How much technical expertise do you have? What’s your budget? How much time do you want to spend?

Even if you have the know-how to stay on top of security patches and software updates, we find many experienced website and business owners would rather skip the tedious server maintenance in favor of focusing on creating great content and products. Many hosts are inclined to include basic levels of managed services in hosting plans for free, with others offering various levels of management for an extra fee, be sure to check out my managed hosting reviews.

Is there a money-back guarantee?
The vast majority of web hosts offer some sort of refund policy if you decide you don’t need or don’t like the plan you selected. Some give customers only a week to decide, while others, including sister companies InMotion Hosting and Web Hosting Hub, allow for 90-day money-back guarantees.

Of course, not all hosts include money-back guarantees — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re an untrustworthy host. Liquid Web, for example, is known for superb service and top-notch infrastructure but does not include a money-back guarantee — we still give the company some of our highest ratings.

Regardless, money-back guarantees typically only apply specifically to the hosting services and not add-ons such as domain registrations or privacy, which are nonrefundable. The moral of the story: Do enough research into prospective hosts so that you don’t need a money-back guarantee in the first place.

Do I need a hosting coupon code to get the best deals?
For most of these hosting offers, you only need to click on the hosting deals above to get the great bargains we’ve exclusively negotiated with web hosting providers across the industry. Please be sure to read the fine print, however: as a few hosts do require you to use a promo code at signup.

We’re happy to share the benefits of our strong relationships with hosts with our loyal readers, so we strive to make purchasing services as easy as possible. As folks who have hosted plenty of websites and applications with dozens of companies, we know how invaluable a happy hosting partnership can be. Best of luck!

Best Cloud Hosting 2019

This modern world of fast paced technology and increasing technological complexities is rife with options for individuals or businesses to establish their own websites to increase customer traffic and interest. There are few limits on what a privately owned website can accomplish with the right mindset, the right idea, a powerful web hosting service.

Web hosting allows for individuals or businesses to post their websites on the greater world wide web. A web host is necessary for a website to exist, and each site is stored in a greater data bank known as a “server” by the host service provider. Choosing to start a website requires you to search for the right web host.

Cloud hosting is a different form of web hosting that uses virtual servers through the internet’s extensive “cloud” storage. Cloud hosting services are gaining in popularity and can be highly beneficial for your personal or business website hosting purposes.

Cloud Hosting vs. Web Hosting
The primary difference between cloud hosting and web hosting is that a cloud hosting provider uses a number of virtual servers to provide hosting service for websites. Normal web hosting generally uses one physical server. In other words, where websites utilizing a web host service are all run off the same server using the same resources on that server (such as space, storage, and bandwidth), websites on a cloud hosting server use a variety of servers to ensure the highest possible quality and speed.

Web hosting has long been the favored and most popular form of hosting service, and it is still preferred for its lower costs on average. In general, web hosting services are either on a smaller scale, providing service for a singular web page or a free web domain with limited functionality, or a larger scale, providing hosting services that must be paid for and support a multiplicity of websites.

Cloud hosting servers, on the other hand, is making a swift rise through the internet ranks, as if offers a variety of useful, often superior benefits that mean more efficiency for website owners. Some of these features include:

High uptimes
Improved support
Faster bandwidths
More reliability
Increased resources
Since cloud server hosting is a real time affair, a faulty or otherwise troublesome server can be quarantined and your website moved to a more efficient server in seconds. The overall distribution of website resources also means that a single server is not getting overloaded by the number of websites that may be hosted on it. For instance, if one website on a shared server were to see an increase in traffic, all websites on that server are likely to experience decreased efficiency. Cloud hosting companies, through the use of multiple servers, does not have this issue.

Here’s My 10 Best Cloud Hosting Providers
Hostgator Cloud
Hostgator Cloud offers a highly flexible and easy to use website building tool that can be used on their expansive Virtual Private Server (VPS) system. With 24/7 customer support and plenty of price options to meet the needs of a more casual user all the way to a professional business, Hostgator Cloud is a high quality cloud hosting service.

In addition to serving as an excellent beginner’s hosting service, Hostgator Cloud also offers several high quality and affordable WordPress hosting options with the highest uptimes available. These WordPress options are good for either single users or for businesses looking to run multiple websites at high bandwidth speeds. In addition to its cloud server and WordPress hosting services, Hostgator also offers cheap web hosting and reseller web hosting. Whatever your needs, Hostgator Cloud can provide.

Hostgator Cloud offers security measures that include custom firewalls, flood protection, and DDoS protection. Beyond that, the company makes it clear that it is your responsibility to keep track of your passwords and ensure that they are strong, to backup your website regularly, and to ensure that you have secure connections throughout your site.

Each of Hostgator Cloud Hosting Plans on a VPS, vary between 25 GB and 3 TB of space, and the company offers a 45 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with your service.

Read my Hostgator Review to find out more details.

Bluehost Cloud
Bluehost Cloud is one of the highest rated web and cloud servers. The service offers excellent uptime levels, 24/7 customer support, fast download speeds, and high quality service overall.

Their monthly cloud hosting plans are exceptionally affordable, though they do require a longer subscription commitment time (between 12 and 36 months). But if your intention is to start a new website for the long-run, this should not prove much of a problem.

Bluehost Cloud offers fast, efficient WordPress compatibility as well as a top-notch security system in partnership with CloudFare. CloudFare offers hotlink protection and anti-spam functionality, and comes with an array of different protection options for each individual website.

The overall website creator tool and control tools are very user friendly and highly intuitive for your website needs. Bluehost Cloud also provides a consistent website backup protocol so that your data is always recoverable (and you can manually backup your website whenever you want outside of their automated system).

Bluehost Cloud’s servers offer between 30 and 240 GB storage with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Read my BlueHost review for a more in-depth look at this host.

Cloudways
This cloud server company is adept at offering managed cloud-hosting services for WordPress sites at a highly affordable rate. When you start your 30 day free trial, Cloudways has you choose from a list of different cloud providers (which act as subsidiary hosts) which include:

Amazon (AWS)
Google
DigitalOcean
Linode
Vultr
Kyup
From these cloud hosting providers, you develop your unique app, choose which server resources you will require, and within minutes your website will be up and running. This method of service allows for a sliding scale type of payment structure, which means you pay for what you use rather than paying outright just for the service.

For security, Cloudways utilizes a “whitelist” IP address log that will allow you to access your server from different, secure nodes. Cloudways also provides efficient platform level firewalls to keep out malicious traffic and hackers. The host also provides automatic site backups to ensure that your data is safe and secure in the case of a breach.

The basic Cloudways plan includes 512 MB RAM and 20 GB storage. From there, you can scale upwards depending on your website’s needs.

WP Engine
WP Engine is the quintessential WordPress managed hosting service. This web host gives you more time to focus on creating and maintaining your business without having to worry about the headaches involved with platform power and maintenance. WP Engine’s platform operates over 30 different open source technologies to increase the overall speed and efficiency that is delivered to your hosted website.

WP Engine offers 24/7 customer service and some of the fastest download and uptimes available. The service utilizes a technology known as “Evercache” which allows for your website to maintain its resources while, at the same time, supporting a high volume of traffic to your website. However, these services do not come cheaply, as WP Engine is on the higher end in terms of price.

For security, WP Engine has established firewalls, regular automatic malware scans, and automated daily backups. As an added bonus, you are also given a “staging” function which allows you to create a mirror image of your site where you can test different plugins and the like to for bugs and other issues that may affect the functionality of your website. Once you are certain there are no issues, you can then implement these changes to your live site.

The base plan for WP Engine offers one WordPress site installation, 10 GB local storage,and a dedicated IP address. The further you scale your plan upward, the more the data and subsequent price will rise.

Digital Ocean
The byline of Digital Ocean is simplicity so that you can spend more time conducting business and less time worrying over the performance of your web host. Individuals and businesses alike will appreciate Digital Ocean’s user friendly platform and high speed performance scaled over several different hosting options.

Digital Ocean takes its customers’ security very seriously, and restricts its technical staff from accessing anything but the most critical systems. For your website, they offer automatic backups that are kept secured on Digital Ocean’s private servers.

This hosting service offers excellent, high speed download and uptimes, easy to navigate control panel, and scaled pricing that is based on usage and has a maximum spending cap so that if you reach your limit, you will not be overcharged for data used.

Digital Ocean plans provide anywhere between 512 MB to 8 GB RAM, and storage ranges between 20 and 80 GB. In addition to their 24/7 customer service, this cloud server also has a helpful community platform where Digital Ocean users can discuss issues and offer advice on a variety of topics.

Media Temple
With numerous hosting options, excellent 24/7 customer service, affordable prices, and highly efficient technology backing their platform, Media Temple is a powerhouse hosting service that can put your website on the internet map. Media Temple places a great deal of emphasis on its customer service, in particular, and is eager to ensure that those individuals and businesses using its hosting services are satisfied.

The unique part of Media Temple that can prove either a benefit or a disadvantage is the fact that its VPS web hosting packages are based a Linux operating system, not Windows. For individuals who either require or rely on a Windows OS for their computing needs, this hosting service may not suffice.

Media Temple utilizes CloudFare network security via Railgun, which is effective at preventing malicious software and hackers from accessing your website. The service also offers SiteLock’s SMART (Secure Malware Alert & Removal Tool) technology which is able to strip malware from your server if it manages to get through Media Temple’s security overlay.

Plans start at 20 GB storage and 1 TB of monthly data transfers. There is also a 30 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied with Media Temple’s services.

Kinsta
Kinsta is another hosting service that is based on providing platforms for WordPress hosting, in particular. This cloud hosting service is designed to be easy enough for beginners to use, with enough advanced features that will satisfy more experienced developers.

Kinsta is powered by the Google Cloud platform, which gives it the backing of an extremely high powered service that utilizes a container technology, which isolates each WordPress site and increases overall latency and uptimes. The hosting service also has a beautifully constructed and user friendly dashboard with overlays that track your overall bandwidth usage, open invoices, resource usage, and your managed sites, with plenty of additional options that give you complete control over every aspect of your website.

Security measures involve automated backups (up to 14 stored at a time), two-factor authentication, GeoIP blocking, automatic malware scans, and automatic IP blacklists to prevent hackers from accessing your site.

Kinsta hosting plans range from 3 GB internet storage to 120 GB, and can be customized to meet any individual or business needs. This service is geared more toward those serious individuals who are looking for the fastest possible service.

Inmotion
Inmotion hosting services are an ideal match for the website and web hosting beginner with enough advanced features and components that will scale with that beginner as they gain experience and expertise in the virtual world. Inmotion offers maximum uptime and high performance speeds with zero downtime site transfers so that you can get going with your new Inmotion hosted website as quickly as possible. As an added benefit, if you live close to one of Inmotion’s data centers, your website speeds will be even faster by proximity.

Inmotion employs four Tier 1 ISP providers that make sure your website’s data flows smoothly and that backups are quick, constant, and efficient. If you desire more security measures, Inmotion offers SSL certificates for sale starting at $99.99 per year that come with a dedicated IP address.

In terms of customer service, this cloud host offers 24/7 phone and web chat options that are quick and efficient in resolving any issues you may run into. Even better, their customer service is all in-house, meaning they do not outsource their customer support. Every member of Inmotion’s customer service team is highly trained and qualified to assist you with your website and web hosting needs.

Inmotion plans range between 4 GB RAM and 75 GB storage to 8 GB RAM and 260 GB storage. In terms of price, Inmotion is one of the more fairly valued options for the amount of RAM and storage that they provide.

Read my InMotion Review for a more in-depth overview of this host.

Siteground
Every Siteground plan comes with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, lightning fast installation, scaling pay options, and a user friendly cPanel control panel. Like most cloud hosts, Siteground’s overall uptime and download speeds are exceptionally efficient, and behind the scenes the company utilizes a custom server monitoring software that has the ability to resolve most issues without any human intervention. And any time Siteground’s servers are unable to meet their dedication to a 99.9% uptime, they will credit your account for any slow downloads or extended downtime experienced.

Siteground is serious about its servers’ security, and utilizes a program that isolates shared server accounts from one another so that if one server experiences a security breach or other malicious attack, it will not compromise the other accounts in that server. The company also employs HackAlert Monitoring (which will cost an extra $1 per month), hotlink protection, IP blacklists, and anti-spam programs (SpamExperts and SpamAssassin). One unique feature that Siteground also offers is called “Leech Protect” that prevents users from posting their passwords on public areas of the site.

This web hosting service is renown for its high quality of customer service staffed by skilled technicians. Certain plans even offer a higher, more specialized degree of service if that is something you are concerned about. Additionally, each service member has a profile that you can access and learn more about their specific background, expertise, interests, and overall experience.

Siteground plans start at 40 GB storage and scale up to 120 GB storage depending on your specific needs. This cloud hosting service is on the pricier side, but their service and attention to detail make them worth the investment.

Read my SiteGround Review for a more in-depth summary on this cloud web host.

Hostinger
As you search for your preferred cloud host, you can try Hostinger free for 30 days to test out their WordPress hosting, highly efficient technology platforms, scaling pricing system, and high quality security measures at reasonably affordable prices.

Hostinger includes reasonably impressive uptime and very fast load times with plenty of customer support options to support you and your website as you work to get underway. When you sign up, you are given a free website designer and domain name that you can customize with ease. Editing and controlling your website is also easy, as their interface and control panel are very user friendly. Hostinger does require a longer time commitment for its plans, which can increase costs in the long run.

For its security measures, Hostinger has daily automatic backups of your website and employs BitNinja DDoS protection, which is an all-in-one and easy to operate protection suite.

Hostinger plans range from 1 GB RAM with 20 GB storage up to 8 GB RAM and 160 GB storage. This hosting service is on the cheaper side, but it may involve some hidden fees. So be careful and pay close attention when using Hostinger’s service.

Best Cheap Web Hosting – 2019 – For Blog Owners On A Budget

Cheap hosting is not always what you would expect in reliability. If you are going to pay for anything, then a good host provider should provide some numbers like how much bandwidth or uptime speeds.

Higher quality hosts typically provide some more services like free site transfers, technical support, and live chat. You should always look for a phone number on the website and gauge how difficult it is to get in touch because even when all things go right, something can still go wrong. Hosting providers are even ranked by how awesome they serve their customers.

This guide looks at some of the hosts with the lowest rates for hosting. This guide also goes over uptime, bandwidth, customer service options, and other perks so that you can see which hosting providers are still going the extra mile despite the low price. The best web hosting offers come sites that know what their users are looking for and have reduced prices on plans that offer just basic features.

Web hosts may expect a lot from their customers in terms of upfront pricing. While some hosts will offer month-to-month, others will require that you pay for 12, 24 or 36 months of hosting upfront. This guide values cost on month-to-month and from savings by purchasing upfront.

Best Overall Cheap Web Hosts
Bluehost
If you have never built a website before and want to get started fast, Bluehost has a few different options that make sense for beginners. The website builder is very friendly with drag and drop features that claim you can create a website in less than a minute.

The host also has a great uptime rating at 99.98% and page speed load times of 510 ms. One of the reasons Bluehost is so well known is because they provide hosting to a number of large websites and can handle big traffic windows.

The biggest issue is that you will not get the cheapest plan that they offer without paying upfront. You will have to make a 36-month commitment before you can sign up for the base package and get the lowest “monthly rate.”

Conclusion
There are cheaper hosting solutions out there, but the features, bandwidth, and money-back guarantee keep customers very happy with Bluehost.

bluehost-hero-shot
Cheapest Plan: You can get a 36-month plan, but you will pay $2.95/month for the base package.

Uptime: 99.98%

Load Time: 510 ms

HostGator
HostGator Cloud has received recognition recently for the constant quality and price. The website recently received a ton of upgrades and new hosting options, which opened it up for those who are just starting out with website hosting.

In the last 12 months, the average uptime has been 99.99% for HostGator. In addition, they have an average page load time of 521 ms. Their support staff also has a response time of an average three minutes.

The variety of featured packages and site-building tools are enough to put HostGator over the edge in terms of price and quality, but the uptime really speaks for itself. Customer service has received high ratings.

One thing you will not find on HostGator is Windows-based VPS hosting. If you are a novice webmaster, then this may not appeal to you. For others, Rackspace will have more options for a higher price in this bracket.

Conclusion
You should pick HostGator if you are looking for a high-quality server and willing to pay a little more per month to get the best uptime for your website.

best web host for wordpress
Cheapest Plan: You will pay $2.75/month with some offers for HostGator, but typically the shared hosting plan on HostGator Cloud is $13.99/month.
Uptime: 99.99%
Load Time: 521 ms

Inmotion
The uptime is a good reason to choose InMotion if you want to build a website’s traffic from day one. Almost all of the plans on InMotion offer unlimited bandwidth and email for a good price. InMotion also includes a money back guarantee.

The website builder software is advanced and allows you to create a variety of websites. However, some of the templates are a bit dated and may need some additional development to do what you like if you plan to include an online store.

If you are looking for a Windows server, you will not find it on InMotion. There are also no managed WordPress hosting servers, and you will need to create separate log-ins for additional applications that you want to add to your website.

Conclusion

You get a lot for the price with InMotion, but you will not find the tools as advanced as other website builders there. In addition, there are many features to the hosting plans, but it does not look like customer support is one of InMotion’s strong suits.

large-inmotion-hero-shot
Cheapest Plan: You can expect to pay $2.95/month for a standard package with InMotion.
Uptime: 99.97%
Load Time: 644 ms

Siteground
The main benefit here is the uptime. Your website will always be up with the strength of SiteGround’s servers. They even have a money-back guarantee that makes sure of this. In addition, you can integrate with CloudFlare for better performance and more security options for your website.

The hosting comes with a free SSL certificate, which is included for all plans. You also get other free services like site transfers. Customers can choose server locations so you get the most bandwidth.

SiteGround has also been recommended for its customer service. They have a real customer and technical support team that can answer questions, fix problems, and is generally available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While there is not a lot of storage offered on some of the lower cost plans, you do get a lot of free services for the price.

Conclusion
SiteGround is a great option for shared hosting as you get a lot of services and security. However, there are no month-to-month sharing plans, which means that you have to purchase upfront. There are also no Windows server options.

siteground-hero-shot
Cheapest Plan: You can jump on SiteGround for as little as $3.95/month for shared hosting

Uptime: 99.99%
Loading time: 530 ms

Wix
Want to build a site but don’t know how to go about it? Wix has a very user-friendly site builder that has won awards due to its interface and design. You can build all types of websites using this software as well, making it great for small businesses who just want to get started.

There are also a lot of free features built-in, including a totally free site option that wix will host for you, as long as you allow their logo on your site.

This is a good option for those who are beginners and just want to get a site up today without much hassle. It has very mobile-friendly options so you can build and manage your site right from your phone

There are some templates that are older and do not use the latest mobile-friendly responsive code that other sites use today. There are also no built-in statistics so you can see how your site is performing.

Conclusion
Wix has the easiest WYSIWYG site builder and a few hosting options, but you won’t get the strong hosting options with other providers. It is more of a site builder platform that you can use with another host if you don’t like what is available on Wix.com.

wix-hero-shot
Cheapest Plan: Your website can get Wix starting from $4.00/month.
Uptime: 98.99%
Load Time: 582 ms

DreamHost
DreamHost is one of the more reliable hosting providers. They also have a ton of site templates built into their interface, which means you can purchase hosting and get online rather fast. You can also find extremely nice designs for websites through DreamHost Remixer.

There are some limitations to hosting. DreamHost charges a lot for private servers and dedicated servers. You also will not find any managed WordPress hosting on DreamHost. While the site builder is intuitive, it lacks in page layout customization, which makes the user have to input more content than may be necessary or look like a carbon copy of another website.

Conclusion
DreamHost is an affordable option for those who are just getting started with website hosting and want to try a new site. You may like the site builder’s options, but it has less functionality to help you pick colors and change the format than other site builders.

dreamhost hosting coupon
Cheapest Plan: You can find shared hosting plans starting from $6.95/month.
Uptime: 99.99%
Load Time: 520 ms

Liquid Web
If you want to build a website and do it right, then Liquid Web is the best way to get all the features you want, including security and site builders, for a great price. Virtual private servers are much better than shared hosting for building large, traffic-heavy websites. This is why a lot of medium to large businesses choose services like Liquid Web.

You can find Linux and Windows-based servers with Liquid Web. The service is well known for their VPS and dedicated hosting options. You can also get prorated VPS plans and choose high-end spaces where you will have huge servers all to yourself to build as you please.

The plans are a little expensive, and you do not have the option of shared hosting. In addition, you can pay upwards of $34.50/month for Managed WordPress Hosting. There are much more affordable options in this category if you plan on building with WordPress.

Conclusion
Liquid Web is a viable option if you want your own private server that you can build from day one. It lacks shared hosting plans and the price will be costly if purchased month-to-month.


Cheapest Plan: If you want the luxury option, you will pay $29.50/month for your own virtual private server.
Uptime: 99.99%
Load Time: 510 ms

A2 Hosting
A2 knows that there are a variety of people out there who are searching for hosting packages. There are different options to choose from, but at the base price, you will pay as little as $7.99 for a shared hosting server.

A2 is also well known for excellent customer service and technical support. You can reach their support team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A2 also has a terrific uptime score, and you can get your money back if something should happen to your website within the first 60 days.

Most plans will not come with a Windows server, but you can request one if you prefer. The private server options are more expensive than other options that you can find on HostGator.

Conclusion
While A2 is packed with features and different hosting options, their most basic plan is much higher than others that offer bulk pricing by purchasing upfront.

a2-hosting-hero
Cheapest Plan: You can get started with A2 Web Hosting for just $7.99/month.
Uptime:99.90%
Load Time: 560 ms

Hostinger
Hostinger is bargain hosting, but with a fast page load time and uptime of 99.98%, you can create a rather large website and get good service. They also provide a claim that they are the fastest web hosting company for the price.

There are few different packages to choose from whether you are looking for a small shared hosting plan, or you want to get your VPS. You can find both of these on Hostinger.com, as well as cheap domain name registration.

The website builder is very intuitive and mobile-friendly, allowing you to build a website in a few minutes.

Conclusion

You should pick Hostinger if you are looking to get a cheap website in less than a minute and want to build a WordPress site. The plans come with unlimited bandwidth and the fastest hosting, as guaranteed by Hostinger’s website.

hostinger-hero
Cheapest Plan: You will not pay too much with Hostinger, which charges only $2.15/month.
Uptime: 99.98%
Load Time: 540 ms

Hostwinds Web Hosting
Hostwinds has gotten rave reviews about their dedicated reseller program, and they have rather cheap VPS hosting plans at $7.50/month. The company has been known to provide unlimited email and monthly data transfers as well to their customers.

If you have a Minecraft server or want to create one, Hostwinds is especially equipped to help you build an amazing server with security tools and dedicated hosting plans.

You will find that some plans do not have a Windows server option. The plans also do not have the best WordPress managed hosting. If you are looking for a strong website with a good page speed, this is the perfect hosting option.

As a robust hosting provider, you can customize a lot of the different server options just by talking to Hostwinds live chat. It is really convenient to start building a website or private cloud hosting using their tools

Conclusion
If you are an advanced user looking to do some interesting server options and want to work with Windows servers, this is the best option for the price.


Cheapest Plan: For a shared hosting plan, you can expect to pay $4.50/month. However, their cheapest plan is for WordPress Shared Hosting at $3.50/month.
Uptime: 99.98%
Load Time: 510 ms

HostMonster
HostMonster does not do month-to-month contracts. Instead, you will need to sign up for an annual plan. In that case, you do get some savings, but not the same as with GoDaddy and some of the other cheaper hosting options. While HostMonster has good customer service rating and has partnered up with Weebly for site-building, there are still a lot of hosting options that do not require a yearly plan to purchase.

There is also a lack of plans for WordPress and Windows VPS that makes one of the less friendly options if you want to start building your empire online. It has an expensive entry-level cost, and it lacks a money-back guarantee that others have offered to customers.

HostMonster also has shown increasing signs of server degradation, as their uptime over the past six months has fallen quite a bit.

Conclusion

You can find better hosting options than HostMonster, but if you like Weebly and want to create a website with their templates, this is a good all-in-one package.

hostmonster-hero
Cheapest Plan: You can find hosting plans for just $6.95/month.
Uptime: 98.99%
Loading Time: 599 ms

GoDaddy
GoDaddy started its quest to be the cheapest hosting company long ago. While the company has come under fire for customer support issues and websites going down, this is a good option for people who are just starting out and want a lot of options, in terms of servers, rates, and WordPress applications.

Their cheapest plan is Economy, which according to the website will provide you with one website, unmetered bandwidth, 100 GB storage, free domain with annual plan, and a free Microsoft Office 365 Business Email account.

Uptime reports show that there can be dips in GoDaddy’s speed from time to time, but on average, it remains around 99% and its page speed averages out to 2.97 seconds.

Customer support ratings for GoDaddy have improved since they have added multiple applications and support for WordPress. Many use GoDaddy for WordPress websites as it allows to create a website with one click.

Bandwidth issues and downtime have been reported as recently as January 02, 2018 with an uptime status showing that website builder recently failed. However, there were no other incidents in the past month involving a less than 99% uptime status.

Conclusion
Plans will look at a certain rate and start out low, but if you choose to pay monthly or do not have any coupon codes, you will end up paying more for your cheap hosting. You can always negotiate lower rates and server sharing through phone support.

Hosting is a lot cheaper on GoDaddy than on other servers, but you may find yourself with a down website if you plan to generate a ton of traffic and have not purchased the right hosting plan for the bandwidth you may require.

A REALLY SIMPLE BEGINNERS GUIDE ON HOW YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN BLOG IN JUST 20 MINUTES.

In order to Start A Blog you will
need to work through these 5 simple stages:
1. Choose a blogging platform

2. Pick a Domain Name & Web Host

3. Install WordPress on your hosting account

4. Design Your Blog

5. Launch Your Blog

In this tutorial we will be building a blog with WordPress. Please do not skip any steps.

STEP ONE

Choose Your Blogging Platform

A blogging platform is the software used to manage your blog. It allows you to create blog pages, add content, images, video and everything else that you would need to do when updating your blog. Another name for a blogging platform is a CMS ( Content Management System).

There are lots of different open source platforms which most web hosting companies will support when you are creating your blog. The main blogging platforms are:

WordPress – is the most popular and customizable content management system (CMS) in the world
Ghost – is a new blogging platform that is creating a lot of noise in the blogosphere
Drupal – is quite popular but is difficult for novices
Joomla – another fairly popular CMS but there is a very steep learning curve
Blogger – a free blogging solution from Google
Why You SHOULD NOT Start A Blog On A Free Platform
Plainly and simply I will never recommend someone who wants to start a blog to use a free platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com. While there is zero barrier to entry and no up front financial cost to you, there are lots of concerns which could cost you more in the long run. If you can, then you should always self-host your blog.

When something is free, YOU are the product
Because of this fact a platform such as Blogger or WordPress.com can shut you down at any point, with no warning and no way to recover your content. A minor indiscretion such as using an image without the right consent can have your site deleted and no way to challenge it.

No Customization
Usage of ALL the free plugins and features are very limited. And if you want to customize your free theme to make it stand out from the crowd, then just forget it. You can’t do this on WordPress.com (free version of WordPress)

It looks unprofessional
Many of the free blogging platforms do not let you have a custom domain which gives across an unprofessional appearance to potential customers and subscribers. You are also very limited with the level of customisation you can do to your blog so your site looks just like everyone else’s.

It’s hard to make money from your blog when you don’t own the domain or hosting.
Most free blogging platforms will not allow you to place any adds or affiliate links on your site. So how can you make any money from the traffic that you have being working hard to build? Answer: No chance.

Many Limitations
The free blogging platforms give you very little in terms of web space. You might get 5GB if you’re lucky. For today’s websites this is just not enough when you consider uploading images and videos to your blog posts.

So what should you gather from this guide so far?
Simple. Don’t go for creating a free blog, because it will restrict you at every stage.
If you think that starting your blog on a free platform now and moving to a paid solution later on is the best way forward, then think again! Migrating your free blog from a free blogging platform to a better paid option can be very difficult and time consuming.

What you should do when creating a blog

The best way forward is to build your blog on a platform like WordPress where you will own your website and content 100% because you are self-hosted and you have your own professional / personal domain name.  You won’t have any limitations and you’re free to monetize your website, which is vital if you’re wanting to make money online from your blog.

Paying for web hosting for your blog is not very expensive and can cost as little as around $5 per month for very simple hosting packages. Having a reliable web host will mean that your site is backed up regularly and you have rights to recover your website for any reason.

Why I Recommend WordPress For Starting A Blog
Well to begin with my website makeawebsitehub.com is built on WordPress, and over 30% of all websites and blogs on the internet use WordPress.

Over the past few years I have worked with all of the well known blogging platforms but always recommend WordPress to blogging novices due to the great community support and ease of use.

It’s INSANELY simple to set up.
You will see just how easy later in this How To Start A Blog guide. To give you some idea to how simple it is, my 9 year old daughter set up her own blog with ZERO help from her expert dad (that’s me by the way).

So easy to use.
Managing your blog, adding content, adding images, amending content and much much more can be done with absolute ease in WordPress. The platform has an extremely intuitive interface so adding new pages, blog posts, etc. can be done very quickly. Out of the box WordPress ticks most of the boxes you will need for your new blog and if it doesn’t there is probably a plugin out there for you.

Blogging is at the heart of WordPress.
WordPress was designed and built for bloggers as a blogging platform so all the blogging capabilities and functionality are already built-in and waiting for you.  If you want to set up an email subscriptions to your blog, then this can be added via a plugin in just seconds. That’s the great thing about WordPress, you can literally set your blog up and publish your first blog in a matter of minutes.

Total control.
With WordPress, you have total control over your site. There’s no waiting for a web designer or developer to amend your content. You can just login to your dashboard and make changes yourself.

WordPress is secure.
As long as you keep your WordPress platform and plugins updated with the latest versions, and you adhere to secure password best practices, then WordPress is a damn secure place to have your site.  WordPress update their software all the time to make sure that it continues to be secure and keeping hackers at arms length.

Excellent support & vibrant community
The WordPress community is vast, vibrant and always will to help out. Check out their support forums to see just how good it is.

You can read more about my thoughts on self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com

STEP TWO

Picking A Domain Name For Your Blog & Setting Up Your Web Hosting
In order to set up a blog you will need a domain name and web hosting. If you are new to starting a blog then I recommend that you register your domain & hosting with the same company to keep things simple.

Domain Name: This is your website address i.e. the domain name for this website is makeawebsitehub.com. Try to choose something short and catchy for your blog that will be easily remembered. I recommend that you stick to .com domain names if at all possible as many of the new domain names aren’t as easy to recognize.

Web Hosting: This is where your blog is stored online. There are lots of different hosting companies out there which offer different types of hosting for a variety of different types of websites. The WordPress platform is free of charge but you will have to pay around $3-4 per month for your Web Hosting and Domain registration fees.

Affiliate disclaimer: I recommend Bluehost because I use them on a lot of websites that I own or have built for clients. I also truly believe they offer a superior service to other hosting companies. All Bluehost links on this page are affiliate links which means that I will get commission if you buy hosting with Bluehost via one of my links. This helps me to run makeawebsitehub.com and keep all the guides on this site free to use and share.

The Best Place To Buy Your Blog’s Domain And Hosting.
I personally use and can highly recommend using BlueHost.com to start a blog because of their simple installation process, great customer service & reliability. They’re also recommended by WordPress.org as a top host since 2005.



Over the years, I’ve tried dozens of different WordPress Hosting providers, so I suppose you can call me an “expert” at choosing the hosting for my blogs. If you want to learn more about what is on offer then read my web hosting reviews.

Once you have decided on which web hosting company to work with you will need to install WordPress on your account. I have created a guide on how to install WordPress on a variety of different web hosts.

Additionally if you sign up to BlueHost today, you will get high quality hosting from just $2.95 per month, as well as a FREE domain name worth up to $15 for the first 12 months for your new blog too!!!

Use this link to get a free domain with your hosting.

Remember: If you’re unhappy with your BlueHost purchase within 30 days, they will give you your money back.

When you sign up for hosting with BlueHost there are some additional services they offer. Domain Privacy Protection means that people won’t be able to see the name, address and contact details of who owns the blog, if you’re happy for people to know who owns the blog then you can deselect this and save yourself about $12 per year.

Starting A WordPress Blog On BlueHost
You can get high quality hosting from Bluehost for a crazy cheap price of just  $2.95 per month (36 months sign up + free domain name).

For new bloggers looking to grow their sites, I recommend going for the Bluehost Plus plan for $5.45 per month, as you get a lot more unlimited features. This is ideal if you plan to scale up your blog in the future or host more than one website.

Normally the Plus Plan hosting package would cost you $10.99 p/m,  so jump on this deal now while it’s still available.


Remember that you can always start off with the basic plan and upgrade whenever you feel you need more features.

Here’s what you get for $5.45 per month with the BlueHost Plus Plan:

A FREE domain name ( worth $15 )
Fast, high quality & reliable web hosting
Free SSL Certificate
Free Site Builder
One-click WordPress Install and 24/7 support.
Unmetered website space
Unmetered bandwidth
Unlimited email accounts
Unmetered email storage
Host unlimited numbers of websites on your account
Click on the “Get Started Now” button to start the process of creating your very own blog.



Next you’ll need to select the right plan for you and your blog. I recommend either the Plus or Prime packages. You can start off with basic if you like and upgrade anytime you feel you need more features to run your website.



Once you’ve selected your plan you’ll then see this page…

bluehost-new-domain-page

If you already have a domain name, from another domain name registrar, that you want to use; then just enter it in the right hand box and then click next to assign your domain name to your new hosting.

Let’s say you don’t have a domain name and you want to claim your free domain.

Type in the domain name that you’d like in the left hand box where it says “New Domain” and then click next. If it’s available then you’ll be able to proceed.

If it’s already registered then BlueHost will cleverly show you some similar domain names that you might want to consider. Or you can just type out another domain name idea to see if it’s available.

domain-name-suggestions
So you have found the domain name of your dreams and you’re now ready to set it up with your new hosting. The next screen you’ll see is the domain registration page where you will have to put in all the boring details such as account information, but this takes no time at all.


Once you’ve filled out the domain registration form, its then time to select your hosting plan. You’ll find this section directly below the account information section.



I normally suggest you select the Plus or Prime plan at 36 months to get a better deal on the hosting, but 12 or 24 months is fine also.

I normally don’t click any of the other options as they’re not essential however I do recommend getting domain privacy if you don’t want anyone knowing who owns the domain. The great thing about the Prime package is this option is free.

Then scroll down and fill out the billing information, click submit and you are done!



You should then receive an email from BlueHost with all your account and login details. Check your spam folder as it can sometimes end up in there if your email client is a little too sensitive.

Keep your login and welcome information safe as you may need it for future reference.

The next thing you’ll need to do is to create a password for your WordPress dashboard login. This is the page you’ll see next after paying for your hosting package. Simply click on the green button to create your password.


On the next screen, you’ll need to put in your desired password into both fields. My advice to you would be to make the password over 15 characters with a mix of numbers, upper and lower case letters and a few special characters such as $%*(*£!.

Make it hard as possible for those hackers wanting to get into your blog. Once you have a long and complex password, make note of it and click next to move onto the next stage.

STEP THREE

Installing WordPress On Your Hosting
So you’ve signed up and paid for your BlueHost hosting. Great! You are nearly there.

The next thing you need to do is to login to your BlueHost account with the details they sent you in the welcome email.

Once you have logged in you’ll see a big blue button saying “Start Building” – press this.


It will probably take about 5 minutes for them to load WordPress on to your hosting account. Once WordPress is loaded you can then login.


If you are following this tutorial then you can click the link that says “I don’t need help” and on the top left of your WordPress screen you’ll see a “Bluehost” menu, click that.


From here you can add blog posts and pages, change the theme (design) of your blog and upload any plugins.

If you get stuck, I have put together some links to useful free and paid WordPress tutorials

STEP FOUR

Choosing A WordPress Theme
Now that your WordPress blog is built you need to add a WordPress theme that has all of the functions that you need, a WordPress theme is a pre-designed template which you can customize. Right now you have a choice to make you can either go with a free or a paid one. There are of course advantages and disadvantages to both so it comes down to what you want from your blog.

Some of my favourite places to find themes for blogs are:

Themeforest
StudioPress
Mythemeshop
WordPress Library
When you are choosing your theme you want to make sure it fits with your goals. For example, if you are writing a professional blog then you will want a formal clean design where as a music blog you will have more license to show off your creativity.

These days you should now been using a responsive design. This means that the layout of your blog will adapt to different mobile and tablet screen sizes – which is highly important for usability now that a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse the web.

How To Install Your New Blog Theme
Your new theme will come in a .zip file format if you have purchased one. You have the options to upload it straight into your WordPress Dashboard by logging into your WordPress blog.

When you log into your WordPress site for the first time, you will see this view of the dashboard.


Move the mouse over “Appearance” tab within the dashboard sidebar, and then click on “Themes”.  This will open up the Themes page within your WordPress dashboard.


You can then either install one of the free themes that you’ll see available to you on your Themes page dashboard or you can install your own Theme that you may have purchased or downloaded elsewhere.

To install a free theme that’s already on your dashboard pre-loaded, you simply press the Activate button under the theme you want. See below:


Remember that you can always switch back to your old theme if you don’t like the look of the new one. That’s the beauty of WordPress.

If you don’t want to use any of the themes on your dashboard, click Add New to start looking for a new theme to use. This will bring you to a page where you will be able to search the many thousands of free WordPress themes that are available to download and use on your site.

Here you’ll see four tabs, Featured, Popular, Latest and Favourites. You can also use the search bar to find more themes, as well as being able to customise your search with specific filters, such as searching for themes that are ideal for businesses and that only have 2 columns.


Uploading your own theme from Zip file
To upload your own theme that you may have purchased from sites like Themeforest or MyThemeshop, you simply do the following…

APPEARANCE >
THEMES >
ADD THEME >
UPLOAD THEMES ( You’ll find this at the top of the page next to “Add Themes” page title.
You then upload your theme .zip file just like you would adding an attachment on to an email.

You’ll now have a pretty blank looking theme set up and waiting for some love. At this stage you want to fill out all the basics like your logos, social media links and other things.

STEP FIVE

Launch Your Blog
Now once you are ready to launch your new blog for other people to read it – you need to click the blue “Launch” button on the Bluehost page


Make sure you fill in the name and tagline for your new blog.


…And that is it!

Congratulations you have now taken the first steps to starting your new blog!

FAQ’s About Starting A Blog
1. Is Blogging Still Relevant?

Yes, blogging is still growing – In 2018 blogging is now one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news online. There are millions of blogs online and everyday you delay in getting started with a blog is another day wasted.

Blogging is a great way to express yourself and share your ideas, creativity and knowledge. Become a thought leader in your niche and leverage that authority for your own gain.
Blogging will help you to connect with other people who share your interests and also become a better writer.

2. How do you make money from a blog?


It’s no big secret- There’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money from blogging.  The reason why these people (including myself) are making money from their blogs is because they have never given up, and they have chosen their niche wisely. Blog about what you know, and what you are passionate about to start with. At the same time, have an idea in mind to monetize the blog (advertisements, affiliate offers, products, ebooks etc). If you put the work in, you will get your rewards.

If you want to learn more then read my guide to on how to make money with blogging  or my post on making money online.

3. How long does Blogging Take?

Around 20 minutes – if you already have some ideas about what type of blog you want to start, then this tutorial can be completed quite easily within 20 minutes.

As for regularly writing new blog posts and promoting them then it will take much longer. I regularly write one to two blog posts per week for this blog and it takes me about 3 hours per blog post. This includes writing, editing, adding images and promoting the blog posts to my social media followers and email list.

4. Can I start a blog for free?

Yes – there are lots of free blog platforms out there, Blogger.com is the most popular free blogging platform out there. I would not recommend setting up a free blog if you plan to use it professionally for business or to make money from in the future. You also will not have custom domain name either.

5. How do I setup an email account for my blog?

I have created an in-depth guide on how to setup a free email address with your BlueHost web hosting account.

6. How do I get more traffic to my blog?

I have written several posts on this topic or check these 37 tips to increase blog traffic

95 thoughts on “How To Start A Blog”
Fred Mngadi
| Reply
Hello Jamie,
I need your advice. I need you to hold my hand and walk with me towards creating a blog. I am a novice in writing and I have not blogged before. I have written a motivational book. The title is: “No One Can Beat You In being You At Your Best!” It has 29 Topics and 112 pages. I have inserted motivating/inspiring/spirit-lifting free-for-commercial-use images from Prixabay (I am a subscribed member) and motivational quotes. I have had it self-edited, scanned and rescanned for unintentional grammar and plagiarism, using Grammarly and DupliCheck software tools. I don’t have funds to print massive copies for sale without knowing if it will sell sufficient copies to make at least a break-even return on the potential investment.

I am thinking that it might be a smart idea if I blog a page on the first week of a month and respond to comments for three weeks and blog the next page the following month and so on. At that rate, I can blog for 9 years. I will then insert a pic of the Front Cover and Back Cover of the book on the blog page. I will then have the book available on eBook for those who might be interested to order and read the full book. I will send a sample of the content to you over email if you wish.

Best Webinar Software 2019 – All You Need To Host Your Own Webcast

Do you want to host a great webinar?

Webinars can be a wonderful tool for leading courses and sharing information with your clients. They also give you an opportunity to show off your expertise as an authority in your field.

What do you need to host a webinar?

Having a good set of equipment can help with the overall quality of your presentation. At minimum you will want to have a good microphone or headset so that your listeners can hear clearly. Preparing backup equipment can also be helpful when an issue happens.

Most importantly though is the platform that you use to host the webinars on. There are many paid and free options available, and choosing one can be overwhelming. Each software will have features suited to different types of users.

Here are fourteen webinar platforms with features that may be suitable towards your needs:

Best Webinar Software 2019 (Premium)
#1 GoToWebinar
Pricing starts from $89/month

Features
Integrated CRM and marketing tools
Flexible scheduling options
Built-in webinar templates for quick events
Create branded promotional materials that stay true to your company
Create custom registration pages, emails, and digital invitations
Utilizes interactive technology to promote audience engagement
Includes organizer webcams, polls with live results, and more
Can pre-record events for later viewing
Detailed analytics about attendance and source tracking
Mobile-friendly presentations and viewing
GoToWebinar is a versatile option for companies that need something easy and stress-free. Whether you’re new to hosting webinars or you’re a seasoned pro, this software can make the process more streamlined. It can provide you with support before, during, and after the webinar event.

GoToWebinar is a very popular option among companies of all sizes. The masterminds behind the software also own LogMeIn and GoToMeeting. The developers have over a decade of cloud-based collaborative services under their belt, so you can rest assured that GoToWebinar is up to par.

The software is very versatile and allows you to be as hands-on as you please. Before you the event ever occurs, you have flexible scheduling options to ensure that your target audience has the chance to attend. GoToWebinar can also take care of promotions. You’ll be able to customize marketing materials, registration information, and so much. With its integrated CRM, you can easily reach your target audience.

When it comes to the quality of the webinar itself, GoToWebinar is quite impressive. This is not your boring old web presentation. Webinars can be fully interactive, complete with engagement tools, webcam capabilities, surveys, and more. Even if you decide to do a pre-recorded event, the accessible technology behind the software allows you to create an immersive experience that feels real and in the moment.

Pricing
Plan pricing for GoToWebinar is very similar to other options on the market. However, GoToWebinar offers many innovative features and the ability to support more viewers at one time. The software is available in three different plans. Each plan can be purchased at a monthly rate or an annual rate. If you choose to get billed annually, you can save up to 20 percent over the course of the year. GoToWebinar does offer a seven-day free trial so that you can test the software before you commit to a plan.



The most basic plan, called the Starter Plan, has limited features. It does not have custom event URLs, video sharing, source tracking, or the ability to record events. However, it does include analytics automatic branding, CRM integration, and all of the other great core features. The Starter Plan can support up to 100 participants in a single event. It costs $109 per month. With the annual subscription, monthly costs come out to $89 per month.

The Pro Plan includes all of the features that GoToWebinar has to offer. With this plan, you’re getting three customizable channel pages, custom URLs, use of an intuitive video editor, and more. This plan can support up to 500 participants per event. It cost $249 per month. For the annual subscription, this plan cost $199 per month.

Finally, there’s the Plus Plan. The Plus Plan includes five customizable channel pages in addition to all of the previous features. This plan will cost you $499 per month, or $429 per month if you pay the annual rate up front.

 Pros of GoToWebinar:
Easy to use thanks to the intuitive interface
Allows presenters to communicate remotely
Webinars can be viewed on any device
Viewers can actively participate in a number of ways
Analytics are detailed and can be used to enhance future events
Lets you include brand colors and logos in event and marketing materials
CRM integration allows you to cater directly to your target audience
Cons of GoToWebinar:
Software updates regularly, which could become a nuisance
Recording quality can sometimes be lower than desired
May be too costly for newer companies
Who is GoToWebinar Good For?
GoToWebinar is a great option for small and mid-sized companies who want a bit more control in how their webinar looks. While the software has many templates to make quick presentations, it offers plenty of flexibility to make it your own. This is great for businesses that want to establish their brand identity from the moment a participant learns about the event. The detailed metrics can also help growing companies adapt to the needs of their target audience and see further success.

#2 ClickMeeting
Pricing starts from $25/month

ClickMeeting gives you the option of customizing the appearance and branding of your webinar to match your existing business. The registration page, waiting room, email notifications, and webinar can be customized with your own branding.

Webinar invitations can be customized to include the webinar agenda, formatted to a email template, and include a registration button and additional information to make it easy to sign up for your webinar. This can be done either on your desktop or the mobile app since they both allow full control over running your webinar.[/vc_column_text]

Features:
Moderated chat feature helps you engage with your audience. You can manage the feedback and reactions in real-time. The chat function allows you to accept, reject, or edit comments before the rest of the audience views them.
13 language interface options. This helps you work with attendees from around the world. The chat function also utilizes Google translate to provide instant translations during the chat.
Interactive webinar room provides tools for document and screen sharing, whiteboard functions, along with polls and surveys to engage with your audience.
Analyze webinar summaries, attendee stats, and attendee ratings with the reporting functions of the software.
One click recording options. You can download recordings into a MP4 format and store webinars in the cloud.
Redirect your attendees to a custom webpage after the webinar. This can be a call to action, a place to provide additional material, and make an overall final impression to your attendees.
Share webinar invites on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Add functionality with connected apps that can help you manage files, scheduling, leads, and prospects.
Pricing:
30 day trial, $25 per month paid annually for 25 attendees.

Yondo


Yondo works as a full video ecommerce platform for hosting your webinars. This can be a good option if you have a library of videos/webinars to offer your customers. One advantage of Yondo is that you have several options to monetize the webinars.

If you have an existing website, Yondo can be integrated into your website to offer webinars to your customers. Alternatively you can utilize a custom landing page to provide a central location for registration.

Features:

You can utilize a call to action tool to add a call to action at the end of the video or on demand during a webinar. You can customize the call to action with a title, images, custom text, along with button and links for your customers to click on.
Create preview videos to give your attendees a sample of your on-demand webinars.
Add team members to your account so that they can help manage your webinars.
Your customers can book 1-1 sessions based on your availability. Booking is displayed in their local time zone based on your availability and can sync to multiple calendars.
Integrated system allows you to view and chat with attendees, trigger call to actions during a webinar, and manage the screen, camera, audio, and recording options. You can also share items from your screen or link documents and other items.
Live webinars can be recorded at ay time and the recordings can be added to your video on demand library at any time.
Host up to 1,000 attendees on each of your webinars. Your attendees can sign up from a customized landing page that includes your branding and domain.
Yondo integrates with Stripe and Paypal to accept payments. You can set up different monetization options including monthly subscriptions, one-time purchases, and pay per view rentals.
Analytics dashboard gives you live event stats and customer information for follow-up.
Create video courses for your website including resources that you can share as attachments to the webinar.
Pricing:

Subscriptions start at $47/month for 25 attendees and there are discounts for paying annually.

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Hangouts Meet

Hangouts Meet is the business-centered version of the Google Hangouts app. Meet comes bundled with Google’s G Suite, and has different features that appeal to webinar use.

G Suite comes in three pricing packages ranging from basic up to the Enterprise option. The main difference for Meet is the number of participants, and recording options. Here are some of the features available on Hangouts Meet.

Features:

For the Enterprise version you can record your webinars straight to your Google Drive in a special Meetings folder. This can be helpful if you want to share the webinar with participants that couldn’t attend the session, or review them yourself for finding ways of improving them in sped-up mode.
The Basic and Business editions of G Suite can support up to 25 participants. If you plan on having more participants to the webinar, you can switch to the Enterprise version to host up to 50 participants at a time.
Video and voice options available for your webinar. You can share documents, spreadsheets, and slides with participants with just a couple of clicks.
Built-in invite integration with your Google Calendar. Hangouts Meet becomes a default conferencing option so that you can schedule and invite people to your webinars. The calendar will automatically generate a Meet link for your event, and you can modify guest permissions from the event page as well.
Pricing

$5 per month for the Basic edition

$10 for Business

$25 for the Enterprise edition.

The structure is set up to where you can upgrade/downgrade between editions.

Blackboard Collaborate
Blackboard Collaborate is a webinar/web conferencing program designed with educational use in mind. Blackboard can tailor the webinar solution options to specific business, government, or educational institutional webinar needs.

Collaborate allows you to create and schedule sessions for your webinar from within the interface. From here you can set up roles for participants beforehand, or make adjustments during the session. Blackboard does point out that the session links are generally long, so you may want to use a url shortener to make it easier for your participants to join.

One of the nice features of the software is that your participants can connect from most devices with a web browser. Chrome and Firefox are recommended for the best experience. The software is designed to be web based and doesn’t make use of Javascript. This can be helpful with reducing issues that your participants may have with connecting to your webinar.

Features:

Collaborate allows for session sizes of up to 250 participants. Larger groups can be accommodated by contacting Blackboard. With larger groups, features such as breakout groups and participant settings are turned off.
You can also record webinar sessions that capture audio, video, and shared content. You can also set it up to that recordings can be downloaded by participants.
View attendance reports to see which webinars have attracted the most participants.
Integration with PowerPoint and Openoffice to help lead training sessions.
Breakout groups allow you to put participants together for group activities. This can be a useful tool for implementing participant interaction.
Pricing:

Free 30 day trial. Pricing available by contacting Blackboard.

AnyMeeting

AnyMeeting provides webinar services tailored for small businesses. If you’re leading a small webinar (up to four attendees), you can set up a free webinar account. Using this option allows you to do live presentations where you can share your screen, audio, and video. You can also utilize the chat function to field questions from your audience.

At the end of the webinar you can redirect your participants to a specific url once the stream has ended. This can be a helpful option for providing an exit survey or a redirect to a call to action page. With the free account option, you will need to upgrade your account to host more attendees, record webinars, and gain access to additional tools that can be helpful for your webinar.

Features:

Customizable registration forms. You can select which fields to include so that you can tailor the marketing information gathered.
International dial-in options available. Attendees can join by phone for instances where their internet connection isn’t optimal.
Q&A session tools available. Audience submitted questions appear on a separate tab, and you can display the question to the attendees when you’re answering the question verbally.
Set up a webinar series using the scheduling tool. Your attendees can do a one time sign up for the whole series, or you can require them to sign up for each webinar separately.
Library of reporting tools available. You can see data on the performance of the webinar, attendance, chat logs, polls, and other data that can be exported in csv format.
Recording options that allow you to download the video in MP4 format.
Up to 1,000 attendees per webinar.
Facebook and Twitter promotion tools.
Pricing:

Free for up to 4 attendees. Professional version pricing starts at $78/ month billed annually for up to 100 attendees.

ezTalks


ezTalks can be a good platform option if your webinars have a shorter duration. Currently the free option limits the duration of your webinar to 40 minutes which can be a good time slot for a half hour webinar. ezTalks doesn’t limit the number of webinars you can schedule, so you can run multiple webinars on a given day.

Another aspect of ezTalks is the integration of their mobile and desktop apps. Some features such as calendar syncing, and polling tools are only on the app version. Recording options on the other hand are only on the desktop side. In terms of the features, the developers placed them on the platforms where they could be used the most rather than trying to mirror the same experience on all platforms.

Features:

Participants can join your webinar by phone. When sending out invites, the template will list a number that they can join by audio for instances where their data connection may not work as well. This was a recent addition added to the platform.
Your webinars can have up to 100 participants during a session. There are several paid options available if you need to increase the number of participants.
You can utilize multiple screens during a webinar. This can be useful if you’re doing a slide presentation during the webinar and need to prepare items off on a second screen.
Scheduling and calendar tools integrated into the mobile app. If you use your mobile device for scheduling meetings frequently, these tools in the app can be useful in managing your webinar schedule and make sure that everything is viewable on your calendar.
Unlimited number of webinars with 40 minute durations. ezTalks gives you the option of other package options that remove the duration limit if your webinars are longer than the time frame.
Invitation tools that integrate with your existing email client. The invite tools has a template built in that allows you to share information to your participants about joining the webinar. All you need to do is fill in their name and email address, along with anything else that you want to use to personalize the invite. You can also paste in email addresses to send out invites without leaving the software. There are also options for copying the link and info for social media or SMS options as well.
Pricing:

Free for 40 minute duration webinars with up to 100 participants. Professional plans with no duration limits start at $12.99/ month for 100 participants and can be upgraded to up to 500 participants. There are discounted options available as well for yearly subscriptions.


ReadyTalk


ReadyTalk is designed for webinars that don’t require live video. This can be a good option if you have attendees that want to dial in using a phone. When setting up a webinar, you can choose to allow VoIP audio, streaming, or toll audio by default. This will allow attendees to connect by either phone or computer.

One thing to consider with ReadyTalk is that it is Java-based, so you will want to make sure that the plug-in is installed prior to starting your webinar. Once you’ve opened the panel, you can add your Powerpoint, polls, and video so that its ready for your presentation.

Features:

Android and iOS apps allow you to run the webinar without using your desktop.
Customized email invites. You can import a csv contact list to send out invites to your contacts, and the software integrates with your existing calendar.
Send out Facebook and Twitter invites so that participants can sign up for your webinar.
One-click recording options. YOu can download a recording in the standard formats, and can use the recording for a future recast.
Comprehensive reporting features to gather marketing data on your participants and follow up with them.
Marketing integration includes Salesforce and HubSpot. Open API allows you to use custom integration options.
Add polls, surveys, and Q&As to your presentation to help with attendee engagement.
Custom brand heading. Reminder emails can have attachments such as a copy of the webinar attached as a thank you email to your attendees.
Price:

Starting at $119/month/user paid annually for up to 149 participants.

iLinc For Webinars
If you need to host a webinar for a large audience, iLinc For Webinars may be a good option. Many of the features and services offered are geared towards providing a large scale presentation. Not only can you host up to 1,000 participants, iLinc also provides session management services and tools so that others can help manage your webinar.

iLinc can also be useful if you want to manage all aspects of the webinar from a central location. There are tools available to help with registration, webinar/attendee management, and after session follow-up. You can also cast the webinar with others in a panel/multiple speaker style format.

Features:

iLinc is designed to have easy to use recording features. You have the option of having the webinar auto record. The recording option is done on the server-side so that the performance of your system isn’t affected during the webinar.
Centralized registration portal. A single link can be provided, or integrated into your website to allow people to sign up for your next event. You can utilize the iLinc registration portal, or work with them on creating a custom solution.
Integrated polls and surveys during and after the webinar. These can be questions that you prepare beforehand, or in the middle of the presentation to re engage with your audience and get feedback on your performance.
iLinc integrates the registration process with social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to direct people to sign up for your webinar. You also have more traditional options that include email templates.
Integration with salesforce.com. The system automatically updates your contact list when a participant registers for a seminar, and stores the information as a new lead.
Automated confirmation and follow-up communications helps to remind your participants of the upcoming webinar. After the webinar, you can provide them with a follow-up email that can include a call to action.
Pricing:

Free 15 day trial. Contact iLinc for pricing options.

Skype for Business
Skype for Business comes bundled with Office 365, and can be a useful platform for hosting medium to large scale webinars. Skype for business allows you to have up to 10,000 viewers at a time by using Skype Meeting Broadcast.

Skype Meeting Broadcast is your starting point for setting up and scheduling your webinar. From here you can select recording options, add event team members, and send out invite links through Outlook. Skype Meeting Broadcast is designed to work with your other Microsoft programs.

Features:

Producers can help the presenter by managing audio and video sources, along with loading the Powerpoint slides. This role gives them control over what the audience sees during your webinar. One example would be to allow your audience to see the Powerpoint presentation while still hearing your voice.
Interact with your audience using Microsoft Pulse. This can be enabled in Skype Meeting Broadcast so that you can post questions and polls to your audience and get their responses. These questions can be loaded before or during the webinar and can be a helpful tool in re-engaging with your audience.
Integration with Outlook and other Microsoft tools. This allows you to streamline invitations and event management with other Office 365 programs.
Attendees can watch from many browser types by clicking on the event link. Skype generally supports the two most recent versions of commonly used browsers.
Meeting Report provides you with the names, emails, and engagement data of each participant after the webinar is over. This can be helpful for after webinar follow-up with your attendees.
Recording options built into Skype Meeting Broadcast. You can set up video on demand so that your participants that may have missed the webinar can watch it after the session is over.
Team roles can be helpful if you’re managing a large scale webinar. You can assign roles to the organizer that handles scheduling the event, team members to present, a producer to manage feeds, and set the role for attendees to watch the webinar.

The Best Websites On The Web – 2019

The Internet is chock full of weird websites and useless information designed to do little more than keep you entertained. However, for every Wikipeetia.org or Snapbubbles.com, there’s a great website with great content and great resources. That’s why I made this list.
With so many websites floating around on the ‘ol interwebs, trying to keep track of the sites you should be spending your time on can be downright difficult. Fortunately, we decided to save you the trouble.
The websites on this ever-growing list are not only some of the most popular sites on the Web in 2019, but they’re each genuinely useful as well. Best of all, we’ve neatly categorized them for easy browsing and your viewing pleasure.
No thanks needed. Just check back in from time to time because we update the list regularly. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to spread the word and get a little cyber karma coming your way!

Finance & Accounting Websites

PayPal

PayPal is the world’s most popular online payment system and without a doubt the biggest player when it comes to receiving and sending money online. Not only does PayPal serve as a safe and secure electronic payment gateway for online money transfers, but a growing number of online service providers and retailers are now accepting PayPal payments, making it a go-to resource for anyone conducting transactions online.

TransferWise

Like PayPal, TransferWise is another website designed to make it easy to receive and send money online. However, the UK-based company specializes in making and receiving payments in different currencies, allowing you to quickly and easily transfer money abroad. While TransferWise does charge a fee for this service, it uses the current, real-time exchange rate and its fees are much lower than PayPal or your bank would charge.

Mint

In addition to being completely free, Mint is one of the best personal finance management sites on the Internet for people living in the US and Canada. It offers a fantastic automatic spending tracker and several great budgeting tools to help you manage your money, keep track of your finances, and improve your credit score. If you want to improve your financial responsibility, do yourself a favor and sign up for Mint today.

Money Saving Expert

Part consumer finance blog and part discussion website, Money Saving Expert is a gigantic resource for everything you could possibly need score some deals and save money. Whether you’re looking for money-saving coupons or low interest credit card deals, rest assured the folks at Money Saving Expert can point you in the right direction. It’s basically a free website created to help you do one thing – save you money. What’s not to like?

Expensify

Want to know where your money is going? Good for you, but to do that you need to keep track of it day in and day out. Expensify helps you do exactly that. With this nifty business bookkeeping site, you can generate free, detailed expense reports quickly and easily to analyze your finances down to the tee. From reimbursements to receipt scanning, everything is automated to make expense reports as headache-free as they can possibly be.

TaxAct

TaxAct is a godsend for millions in the US come January each year. This popular, easy-to-use tax preparation platform makes preparing and filing your taxes as easy as 1-2-3. With TaxAct, you can file both state and federal tax returns; and for simple returns, it’s 100 percent free. Plus, it offers unlimited support, handy step-by-step guides, and a 100 percent accuracy and maximum refund guarantee, so it’s impossible to go wrong.

Books

Audible

The Internet’s most epic source of online audio books, Audible features an insanely huge catalogue of books on audio. From new releases to the classics, you can find almost any title on Audible. In addition to audio books, you’ll also find audio versions of magazines and newspapers, recorded TV and radio programs, and a myriad of high-quality audio courses. Whether you’re at the gym, in the car, or at home and simply giving your eyes a break, Audible’s selection will keep you learning and entertained for years.

Good Reads

Good Reads is a modern-day book club. Well, technically it’s a social network for book lovers, but details aside, it’s pretty darn great. Owned by Amazon, Good Reads is thriving and growing every day, making it a terrific place to connect with fellow readers, share recommendations, read insightful book reviews, and more. Signing up for Good Reads is completely free, so anyone can freely search its vast database and generate a custom reading list in no time at all!

Which Book

Not sure which book to read? Reader reviews are wonderful and certainly insightful in a number of ways, but there’s nothing quite like the power of Big Data, which Which Books uses extraordinarily well. This next generation book suggestion utilizes cutting-edge tech to sort through millions of different factor combinations and suggest the best book for your needs. You simply tell Which Book the type of book you want along with some other information, and it will search through its gigantic library to match you to the book or books that best fit what you’re looking for.

Blinklist

Blinklist proves that big things truly can come in small packages. Rather than having to read hundreds of pages, it breaks down each book into minute-sized chunks, allowing you to gain insights into an endless selection of non-fiction books in under 15 minutes. This is what Blinklist is all about. It condenses over 2,500 top non-fiction books, so you can learn a ton of new things each and every day.

Pixel of Ink

Dying to read a Kindle ebook your friend recommended but don’t want to spend more than a dollar or two? Pixel of Ink is the best place on the Internet for tracking down awesome Kindle ebooks for next to nothing or completely free. With tons of bargain ebooks available for less than $5, $3, and even $1, it can be a real goldmine for bargain-hunting Kindle owners.

Book Riot

Book Riot is a wonderfully unpretentious blog created by book lovers for book lovers. The popular online publication is filled with witty and entertaining book reviews and literary news. Whether you’re looking for can’t miss recommendations of must-read books, commentary on the latest new releases, or the latest scoop on book-reading technology, Book Riot is the place to be.

Project Gutenberg

Speaking of book-reading technology, Project Gutenberg is all about digitizing, archiving, and distributing ebooks. In fact, it has taken it upon itself to digitize as many of the classics and other cultural works of the written word as it can for the current and future generations to enjoy. Best of all, everything on Project Gutenberg is available to read online or download absolutely free of charge.

Video Streaming

Amazon Prime Video

A subscription to Amazon prime not only gets you fast free shipping – it also gives you access to Amazon’s top-notch Prime Video streaming service. While it isn’t as polished as Netflix, it’s free with your Prime membership and comes with a ton of great content, movies, and original shows. With deep pockets and exclusivity deals with HBO, BBC, and more, its already impressive catalogue is getting even more impressive by the day. Of course, you also get ad-free music, unlimited photo storage, and access to Amazon Kindle ebooks as well.

Netflix

With a dizzying selection of movies, documentaries, and TV shows available on-demand, it’s easy to see why Netflix remains the world’s leading video streaming site. The site’s catalogue of programming continues to grow right along with its list of subscribers. In addition to giving you access to an endless number of movies and shows on any smart TV, PC, smartphone, tablet, or gaming console, Netflix’s original productions are on par with some of Hollywood’s best.

YouTube Movies

YouTube is much more than the world’s top destination for videos in just about every category. In fact, you could actually make a case for it competing in just about every category on this list. That said, one of the website’s lesser known features is YouTube Movies, which allows you to rent movies and shows on-demand. Of course, being YouTube, there are plenty of free movies available as well. From “Avengers Endgame” to “The Lion King,” you name it and chances are YouTube has it.

Vimeo

To many people, Vimeo is pretty much YouTube’s little stepbrother. However, this Rocky-esque site has managed to defy the odds and carve out a loyal following. As one of the most supportive communities on the Web for indie filmmakers, Vimeo is where you go to stream refreshingly “artsy” films on demand. This isn’t the place to stream “Thor: Ragnarok.” It’s the place to see Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW award winners. Not the artsy type or in the right mood? Don’t worry, Vimeo has a little something for everyone and every mood too.

Movies

Rotten Tomatoes

Want to know whether or not a movie is worth your hard-earned $15? Rotten Tomatoes has you covered. This incredibly popular movie site is the go-to website for the very best movie reviews. Home of the “Tomato-meter,” it provides the most trusted, unbiased, and simple appraisal of movie quality on the Web. The higher the Tomato-meter, the better a movie is. It simply averages thousands of reviews to create a 1-100 number score. Of course, like its competitor IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes also has movie trailers, showtimes, in-depth reviews, and more.

IMDb

IMDb is one of the Internet’s oldest websites. In fact, it was created before the first web browser. Not surprisingly, it’s also one of the most popular websites. It features the world’s largest database of movie reviews, ratings, and fun facts. As such, it’s the go-to place to get the scoop on the next big box office hit, TV shows, video games, celebrity content, and more. if you want to dig deep into a movie or Hollywood in general, IMDb is the place to do it.

Screenrant

Like IMDb, Screenrant is one of those sites that should be bookmarked and religiously visited by any self-respecting, in-the-know movie buff. Filled with the latest movie and television news, reviews, trailers, and more, it’s a nicely edited, insightful publication that covers anything and everything Hollywood-related. If you love movies, you’ll love Screenrant.

Short of the Week

As its name suggests, Short of the Week is a website dedicated to showcasing the best short films. A new short indie film is hand-picked and added to the website each and every week. From killer zombies to love and every other topic under the sun, you’ll find hordes of great film shorts in every genre just waiting to be appreciated. Each short weaves incredible storytelling into a 5-20 minute movie, making it an ideal place to get your entertainment fix in today’s on-the-go world.

Music

Spotify

Featuring an endless selection of music for everyone, Spotify continues to reign as the world’s leading music streaming website. It gives you instant access to thousands of artists, albums, and songs in every genre imaginable. Best of all, it’s free. However, if you love music like I do, Spotify Premium might be worth picking up. Although it isn’t free and will cost you a little each month, it gets rid of the ads, which don’t appear often but can be really annoying when they do.

Soundcloud

Love indie music and discovering new artists before everyone else? If so, Soundcloud was made just for you. This simple, bare-bones website not only allows anyone to download music, but it also allows anyone to upload music and embed their tracks across the Internet. So, you can upload your own creations or listen to millions of other original songs uploaded from people around the world. If you want to beat the labels to the punch and be the first to discover the next big thing, Soundcloud is the place to do it.

TuneIn

Being able to listen to artists, songs, and albums is one thing, but with TuneIn you can stream live programming from more than 100,000 radio stations located in cities around the globe. regardless of your favorite genre of music or the mood you’re in, chances are you can find the perfect song on TuneIn. That said, unlike other music streaming sites, TuneIn allows you to enjoy the full radio experience complete with trivia, call-ins, witty banter and all.

SongKick

Love going to live concerts and shows? SongKick is a unique concert discovery service that directly connects to your Spotify, Last.fm, and Facebook accounts to keep you in the loop about when and where your favorites artists are scheduled to perform near you. With SongKick, you can organize and track your favorites musicians and bands, receive concert alerts, get ticket prices, and purchase tickets online. It’s a powerful, streamlined way to make sure you never miss a live gig.

Apple Music

Apple Music and its iTunes Store has become one of the biggest players in the music industry, responsible for a huge percentage of music sales around the world. If you want to buy music, movies, or even audiobooks for that matter, iTunes will definitely have what you’re looking for. At Apple Music, you’ll find millions of premium-quality song titles and a lot, lot more.

Last.fm

Last.fm is uniquely cool place to find songs, discover artists, and listen to music online. In fact, it’s the largest online music website in the world for listening to artists, learning all about them, and receiving music recommendations custom-tailored to your likes and taste. By using cutting-edge statistical analysis, Last.fm is able to accurately predict what artists and songs you might like. It’s like the “Magic 8 Ball” of music.

Poolside.fm

Whether you’re lounging poolside or not, Poolside.fm should be playing in the background. As the perfect accompaniment to summertime temperatures, backyard barbecues, and outdoor fun, this creative website pairs ‘80s video clips of big hair, rollerbladers, leotard-laden aerobics classes, and movies like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” with song tracks of the era for an entertaining audio/visual combination that’s sure to be a hit at any pool party.

Pandora

Similar to Spotify, Pandora is another great place for finding and listening to music on any smart device. The personalized online radio platform is free to use and makes listening to your favorite tunes easy as 1-2-3. Simply add some of your favorite artists and Pandora will begin playing all of their most popular tracks along with plenty of similar music that may or may not be new to your ears.

Genius

From Led Zeppelin to Lorde, if you want to know all about an artist, band, or the songs they sing, Genius is the site for you. It’s basically a huge community of music lovers. It’s a place people turn to when they want to talk about song lyrics, break them down, and expand their insights by finding their deeper meaning. Artists also regularly contribute by using the platform to share and discuss their music with the world.

Mixcloud

Whether you’re into hip-hop or classic rock, Mixcloud has your back. The website brings radio into the 21st century, providing a fully interactive experience where anyone can produce and upload their own radio shows. If you love radio but listening is more your thing, you can also search for a radio station, podcast, or DJ and listen in for free.

Deezer

With over 50 million songs and 14 million users around the globe, Deezer is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the music streaming world. Why is it becoming so popular? Well, besides its punchy, unique name, Deezer is the only service of its kind with Flow, a proprietary algorithm designed to dish up new recommendations and all of your favorites into a single ever-changing stream of music consciousness. Sounds great, right?

Tidal

Recently acquired by rap star and modern-day tycoon “Jay Z” for $56 million, Tidal now has the distinct privilege of being the first artist-owned major music streaming service. Not surprisingly, it also claims to pay artists and songwriters higher royalties. That aside, Tidal has carved a niche in the marketplace by offering CD-quality music streamed on demand. If you want to fully appreciate your $250 Beats headphones, Tidal is worth checking out.

Productivity (Getting Sh** Done)

Google Drive

Google Drive is arguably the best cloud storage and backup service out there. This is especially true if you’re already under Google’s umbrella via Gmail or Android. With Google Drive, you get access to Google’s secure and easy-to-use cloud storage and backup service for all of your photos, videos, documents, and other files.

Gmail

Most consider Gmail the best non-commercial email service out there, and for good reason. As one of the most popular email platforms for over a decade now, Google’s Gmail has plenty to offer. For starters, it’s free, intuitive, less spammy, and provides decent storage. However, it also seamlessly integrates with Google’s suite of other productivity apps, making it a no-brainer for just about everyone. Plus, there are plenty of new productivity features and third-party app integrations coming out every day, so it just keeps getting better and better.

Evernote

Want to capture anything anytime you want? If so, Evernote is worth checking out. The hugely popular note-taking app is available in your browser and in app form across multiple platforms, including Android, Windows, iPhone, iPad, and webOS. With Evernote, you can create tasks lists and save all of your favorite photos, articles, recipes, notes, Pinterest pins, and just about anything else online to your account to view or use at a later date. You can literally have 1,000s of them, and everything you save in Evernote is always only a few clicks or taps away.

IFTTT

IFTTT is short for If This Than That. It’s a cool, completely free website that allows you to connect hundreds of apps and services you regularly use and create “applets” to automate specific tasks. For example, you can use IFTTT to automatically save your PDF documents and email attachments to OneDrive, Google Drive, or another file storage and backup service. This is just one example of what IFTTT can do. You can also set it up to automatically Tweet your Instagram posts, receive SMS alerts as events come up in your Google calendar, and more.

Todoist

Todoist is a t-do lis manager extraordinaire. It can basically help you organize your entire life. Millions of people use Todoist to keep track of anything and everything. However, not only can you use it to search, schedule, and add tasks, but it’s loaded with useful features and IFTTT integrations to help you stay on top of everything and simply get more done.

Rescue Time

Need help staying focused and productive? Rescue Time may be able to help. This browser plugin and time management program includes a personal analytics service that tracks how you spend your time online and gives you tools to increase your focus and productivity while improving your work-life balance and overall quality of life.

Google Hangouts

As the search giant’s answer to Skype, Google Hangouts is a great platform for bringing conversations to life with family and friends around the world. You can connect via video with anyone you want on any Windows PC, Mac, Android, or iOS device.

OneNote

OneNote is a free note-taking app from Microsoft that many feel is even better than Evernote. Designed for freeform information gathering, it allows you to gather notes, screen clippings, drawings, audio commentaries, and pretty much everything you want across all of your devices. it also allows you to customize your note layouts and drag and drop individual note elements anywhere you want. You can even drop several pieces of media into one note. Pretty neat indeed.

Google Keep

Google Keep is a simple note-taking platform that’s much more lightweight and streamlined than OneNote and Evernote. Launched in 2013, the Google Keep website and mobile apps allow you to easily create and store tasks, lists, notes, photos, and audio. You can use them whenever you want or share them with family and friends via any computer, Android, or iOS device.

Upwork

If you want to get the most out of your day and boost your productivity in the process, outsourcing some or all of your tasks might very well be one of the best decisions you could make. As the world’s largest freelance website, Upwork is the perfect place to hire freelancers for almost anything imaginable web or business-related. Just post a job description explaining the tasks you need done, which can be anything from graphic design to making reservations, sort through all of the proposals you’ll receive, and choose the person you feel is best. That’s all there is to it.

Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft Office has been a mainstay in homes and offices around the world since what seems like the inception of the Internet decades ago. Now, Microsoft is offering a free version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneDrive, and all of its most popular Office apps. While the free version has less features, it’s a great way for anyone to access files and edit them from their browser. it’s also a great way for people to collaborate and work together on documents. Collaborating with Microsoft Office Online is free, and since you can save files to One Drive, sharing and working with others has never been easier.

Join.me

Join.me is an easy-to-use screen-sharing website. It allows you to share the screen on your Mac, PC, or smartphone with up to 250 others, making it great for web conferencing, online meetings, conducting presentations, team collaborations, and the like. The free version of Join.me is almost too good to be true as alternatives like GoToMeeting and WebEx can cost a pretty penny. Its simplicity and ease of use is also a plus. In fact, you can set up a screen sharing session with a few simple clicks. You don’t even have to register for the site!

Soft Murmur

If you’re like many who work better with a little ambient noise going on in the background, Soft Murmur might just be your new favorite site. Available online or as an app for Android and iOS devices, its dashboard features slidable bars to adjust the volume of each of its five nature sound effects independently for a completely customizable sound. Whether you turn up “Waves” and “Wind” for the sound of a breezy beach day or “Thunder” and “Rain” for the soothing sound of an afternoon storm, it’s sure to channel you into a more relaxed and focused state of mind.

Online Privacy

Tor

Technically, Tor isn’t a site – it’s a browser. However, it’s not any ordinary browser. By bouncing encrypted messages through a huge obfuscation network of computers, it’s able to make you anonymous and protect your privacy online. Best of all, it’s free, proving you don’t have to spend money to safely browse the Web.

Have I Been Pwned

This is a great site to see if any of your personal data and account information has been compromised or leaked by a data breach. There’s no need to register, enroll, or anything like that. Just search the site’s database by entering your email address. If you’ve been compromised, you’ll be able to see which data has been leaked, allowing you to take action and secure the accounts. It’s quick, easy, and most importantly, it works.

BleepingComputer.com

Computer acting up? Think it may have been infected with malware or a virus? If so, you should pay BleepingComputer.com a visit. This computer help website is the place to go for answers to any technical and security-related computer questions. From the latest security news to updated malware, ransomware, adware, and virus removal guides, you’ll find the technical support you need at BleepingComputer.com.

LastPass

Managing all of your passwords is tough. You know you’re supposed to use different passwords for different sites and change them periodically, but trying to keep track of them all can be downright impossible, right? We agree, but fortunately, LastPass can help. It’s one of today’s most popular password managers. With LastPass, you can generate passwords, encrypt them, and safely store them under lock and key. When logged into LastPass, you can easily log into other accounts without having to remember the passwords for each. Needless to say, it’s about time to throw the Post-Its away.

JustDelete.me

As its name suggests, JustDelete.me is a handy website for getting rid of different social media and other accounts with a minimal amount of effort and fuss. Have an old account for some shopping store you opened one Christmas season a decade ago? Do yourself a favor and visit JustDelete.me.

DuckDuckGo

Google is without a doubt the leader in search. Many of the Web’s largest companies have tried to go up against the “Big G” and failed. To say DuckDuckGo is a small company is an understatement. It’s a one-man band, yet it’s managed to become one of the most attractive and secure Google alternatives today. Rather than dealing and messing around with maps, email, social networking, and real-time results, it’s a simple, no-nonsense search engine with a no-nonsense privacy policy as well. Not only does DuckDuckGo have a strict no-logs policy, but it also anonymizes your searches for a truly private and secure search experience.

TOS;DR

Short for Terms of Service; Didn’t Read, TOS;DR is a cool project that analyzes boring, dry, and unreadable legalese (aka: Terms of Service notices) and transforms them into something much more readable and succinct. It’s great for anyone wanting to take an active role in overseeing the use of their data and protecting their privacy.

Images

Unsplash

Nowadays, photo sharing websites are springing up everywhere. However, despite claiming to be different than the next and better than Flickr, the grandfather of the bunch, they all pretty much do the same thing: allow you to interact and share your photos with others. This is where Unsplash comes in. It truly is different. When you subscribe to Unsplash’s mailing list, you’ll get 10 professional, high-resolution photos every 10 days for free. Of course, you can still use Unsplash the traditional way by browsing through shared photos and downloading the ones you want. You can even group your liked photos into different categories for multiple collections.
Further reading: Free stock images

Shutterstock

If you’ve ever searched for stock photos for a website or any other project, chances are you ran across Shutterstock more than once. As the industry’s top stock photo agency, Shutterstock has a vast collection of over 95 million royalty-free images at super low prices. With a huge library of cheap, high-quality stock photos in a variety of categories, Shutterstock is hugely popular and pretty much impossible to avoid when on a stock photo hunt.

News

BBC News

BBC News is a world leader in current affairs and broadcast news. In fact, it’s the #1 broadcast news organization in the world, generating 120 hours or more of TV and radio programming every single day. The BBC News website is equally popular and arguably just as busy. As one of the UK’s top news websites, it’s read by over 25 percent of UK residents and 14 million people worldwide each month. With great written content and a ton of video and radio content as well, it’s the place to turn to stay up to date on what’s going on not only in the UK but the world.

The Conversation

When it comes to in-depth research, analysis, and news on a huge variety of topics, The Conversation is hard to beat. While it sounds like a network morning show, it’s actually a website consisting of nothing but editorials and insightful commentary from professional academics. That said, what’s particularly great about The Conversation is the fact that it often publishes a number of articles on the same topic in order to provide several different angles and perspectives. If you want to stay well informed about the true issues affecting our world, simply join in on The Conversation.

Reuters

Reuters is the place to go for up-to-the-minute news releases. With several Pulitzer Prizes for its international reporting, Reuters is heralded as the least biased news agency in the world, putting it in a class all its own. if you want objective reporting with zero spin and few loaded words, Reuters is worth checking out.

Hacker News

It may seem like a run-of-the-mill technology news aggregator at surface level. However, upon further inspection you’ll discover a technically savvy community full of insightful and unique perspectives on hacker-related news. You won’t find the information at Hacker News at any other major tech news site.

FiveThirtyEight

FiveThirtyEight’s founder, Nate Silver, won appraise for his eerily accurate prediction of the 2012 presidential election. As a statistician, he created FiveThirtyEight to provide a much-needed news blog with a data-centric perspective. With compelling news stories on politics, the economy, technology, sports, and more, it’s great whenever you want a more sober take on the news than the major 24-hour news networks provide.

Google News

Not surprisingly, Google News is one of the globe’s largest news aggregators. It continuously pulls top stories from around the Internet to provide a constant stream of the latest news articles from a massive number of news and magazine publications. As the brainchild of one of today’s top tech companies, Google News also employs a little secret sauce and statistical data to handpick and deliver the articles you’re most likely to enjoy.

Reddit

If the Internet was a newspaper, Reddit would be the front page. It basically serves up the internet’s best articles and news stories in one convenient place. However, in addition to a continuously updated feed of the Internet’s best viral videos, fun stories, and breaking news, Reddit also incorporates a social aspect through the use of social voting and user-generated news. That’s right; at Reddit, anyone can add a description, post a link, and review and rate each link you visit. Just be forewarned, at Reddit, anything goes. So, if you run into some content that’s a little NSFW, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Quartz

Quarts is another great website for news, videos, obsessions, and ideas. In fact, it offers some of the most thought-provoking and intelligent journalism on the Web. In essence, it’s a constantly updated business person’s guide to the global economy. With a decidedly global-centric approach, it provides smart news stories on a variety of hot topics ranging from science and technology to business and the financial markets. At Quartz, you’ll always leave feeling more informed than you were when you arrived.

Software

Adobe Creative Suite

From Adobe Reader to Flash and Photoshop, Adobe creates a lot of software programs. Although most people know about the programs I just mentioned, Adobe develops a lot of other programs too. In the past, buying all of the programs in the Adobe Creative Suite would cost a mall fortune, but the suite is now available on Adobe’s Creative Cloud platform on a subscription basis. Plans start from $9.99 a month, making it a great option for those on a budget. There’s a total of 16 programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, so it’s definitely a good deal any way you slice it.

AlternativeTo

Remember when the GrubHub delivery fee was only a buck? No, well I’m not sure if that was ever the case. However, if an app you use has upped its prices or isn’t quite giving you what you need, AlternativeTo is worth a look. With this great website, you simply type in the name of the website or app you want to replace, and it will dish out several similar alternatives to have a go at. For most sites or apps, it will list crowd-sourced recommendations for mobile apps, desktop computer software, and web-based software, giving you dozens of options for almost any app you want to replace.

GitHub

In many eyes, GitHub is one of the world’s best software development platforms. It has brought together some of the world’s best talent to create a gigantic community of program and software developers who use their collective knowledge to build and discover better software. This makes it a popular platform for the development of open software projects. Users get access to contributor stats, downloads, commit logs, version history, and more to collectively create better software.

SourceForge

SourceForge is similar to GitHub. It’s also an open-source platform where you can develop, download, and publish open source software projects for free. As one of GitHub’s main competitors, it also has a huge directory of open source software and applications available for fast and secure download.

File Hosting

Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular and easy-to-use cloud storage and file hosting service. You use Dropbox just like any other folder you have on your computer, except each file you save to your Dropbox is synced to any other devices linked to your account. In other words, it’s a modern workspace created to minimize your busy work, allowing you to focus on what matters most. It comes complete with cloud storage, personal cloud, file synchronization, and more.

Mega

Mega is another popular file hosting and cloud storage service offered via a simple and easy-to-use web-based platform. With fast downloads, file encryption, a mobile app, and a whopping 50 GB worth of free storage at signup, it’s arguably the best file hosting and cloud storage service on the Web.

HighTale

I don’t know about you, but I hate those file size caps that make you send multiple email documents when you could have just sent one. HighTale solves this dilemma. In addition to letting you preview websites and documents and keep all of your creative projects in one convenient and secure location, this file host allows you to email large files up to 2 GB in size.

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