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Moving your blog to it’s own domain? Get a good web host

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Many of the people visiting this site are not only gardeners and gardener wannabe’s, but also website owners. Some of you might blog on free platforms like bloggers, however eventually, many website owners move their sites to their own domains where they will be able to have more control over the look and function of their site.

Unfortunately, when you decide to take that big step and purchase a domain you also need to find a reputable web hosting company. If you don’t know someone with a lot of experience in such matters you might find it difficult to find the perfect web host and get started.

Luckily for any of you who might be thinking of starting a gardening blog or some other type of website, whether personal or commercial, Kaushal Sheth has taken the time to write an article listing what he feels is possibly the best web hosting company to put your trust in.

Now some of you might remember that I had major web hosting problems last year. Not only did I lose my host and had to scramble to get a new one, but it happened to me twice! This was because my sites were apparently using too much of the web hosting servers memory (CPU usage). Heavy plugins used on sites and other scripts can cause major problems with web hosts.

In his article, Kaushal discusses what he feels are his top three favorite web hosts. He explains why he moved his website to the first host on his list.

Of the three web hosting companies that he lists – Host Monster, Host Gator and Yahoo Host, I’ve only tried Host Gator. In fact they are my current web hosting company. I’ve been using them since July of 2007 and I haven’t had one single problem. Believe me that’s a huge relief after all the trouble I went through with two different hosts between February and early July last year!

If you’ve been looking for a good web host or know of another good one to add to his list why don’t you drop by and say hello to Kaushal and read his article? Oh and if you happen to be a blogger take a look at his theme and template sections. He’s got some great template listings.






Submit your posts to Thoof and gain site visitors!

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a site called Thoof. Did you visit the site? I think Thoof is a great site. You can read the latest news on the site in the form of blog and website posts that have been submitted to the site, and the Thoof system remembers what you’ve clicked on in the past so when you visit the site articles that Thoof thinks will be of interest to you are shown on the front page. In this way Thoof can very easily become your very own personalized news website.

As I said when I posted about Thoof a couple of weeks ago, you can submit your own posts and articles to the site. It’s really easy to submit and when you do you’ll start to see new visitors coming to your site to read the full story. A number of bloggers that I know have been submitting their articles regularly and they’ve been quite happy at the traffic that they’ve been getting from Thoof.

The creators of Thoof have even created a new badge called the ThoofRank badge. When you submit one of your articles you’ll be given the code for the ThoofRank badge that you can then place in your post. The ThoofRank will let you and your visitors know how popular your story is on the Thoof site. Cool huh?

Speaking of Thoof. Ever since I heard of Thoof.com I’ve wondered how they came up with that name. I even searched the site to see if there was any info on how the name came to be Thoof but there isn’t.

I have an idea of how the site was named. I think that the creators of the site were sitting in a room talking about what they should name this current news community. On the table in front of them were bowls of peanuts, and various fruits to snack on. I can picture one of the site creators leaning forward and grabbing some cherries to eat, but when he bit down on one of the cherries one of his teeth cracked! In horrendous pain he said “Oh my thoof, my thoof!”.

The others deep in conversation about the name of the site didn’t understand what had happened and as he kept repeating Thoof and pointing to his cracked tooth they thought the name Thoof was a suggestion for the site name. Since the person with the cracked tooth was being so enthusiastic they took a vote right away and that’s how Thoof got it’s name.

What do you think? That’s the only way I can imagine how Thoof got it’s name.

Hey, don’t forget to submit your gardening posts to Thoof! They definitely need more garden related stories there.

Free blog community at Thoughts.com

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I was asked to do a write up of Thoughts.com blogs – a 100% free online blog community.

Thoughts.com was given an appropriate name since it was created as a place for people to share their thoughts. It has since developed into a community of bloggers from all over the world.

As free blog communities go there are a few features that you’ll find on Thoughts.com that you won’t find elsewhere.

Unlike other blogging communities members of Thoughts.com can share videos, photos, music files and podcasts. Registered members can even rate other members videos, podcasts, blog posts and photos. In fact, if a member wanted to be able to make posts in the community blog sections of the site they would need to have been rated by other members and have attained a rating of 4 in order to post. So participation and interaction with other members is obviously encouraged.

I realize that many of the people that read my gardening blog have websites or blogs of their own, but not all of you do. Perhaps Thoughts.com might be a site to explore since you can upload your own photos and videos for others to see. If you were to sign up for a free membership you could use your blog as a journal and make entries about your plants or gardening methods.

The best feature of the site is of course that you can upload so many different types of multimedia all in one site. Other blog related communities or for that matter even personal blogs often need to host their photos, videos and podcasts on a variety of sites and then embed code into their blogs or posts in order to show others what they’ve created. Since you can store all your multimedia files right on thoughts.com I’m sure it’s easier to use photos and videos in your posts or point others to these files without having to leave the site.

Another great feature of Thoughts.com is the fact that they reward their top members with a free trip each year. This year they’ll be taking five of their most active members to Las Vegas. It’s an all expenses paid retreat. You can read all about it on the site but the winners will stay in a 4 star Las Vegas resort, have three free dinners and two free shows awarded to them, as well as having round trip airfare from anywhere in the continental United States.

Now that sounds like a pretty sweet deal. I can’t think of any other blog community that does anything like that. The best part is that all you have to do to win is be one of the most active on the site which is easy enough to do if you are uploading photos and videos, having them rating by members and rating other members items as well.

Check out Thoughts.com if you’d like to start your own free blog and socialize with others. Don’t forget to visit the community forums while you are there.

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