Now you may have dediced to use a shared hosting package that offers such unlimited features. Perhaps you have checked things like the quality of their customer support, uptime guarantee, automatic backup, money-back guarantee and feedbacks that the company has received. All these are vital aspects that you should consider before picking a web hosting service.

Another thing that you should take into account is the average number of sites hosted on a single server. To find it out, you can ask the company directly or visit their forum. Different companies will give you different answers. Generally, the lesser, the better. The performance of a server that hosts more than 1000 sites is logically lower than the one with 100 sites, as long as all other variables such as server specs are not much different.

A free tool called Reverse IP Lookup can also be used for this purpose. Using this tool, you can identify the number of sites hosted on a server. To put it simply, this tool works by gathering data from search engine about websites that reside on the same machine. All you need to do is to enter a domain name pointing to one of the company’s shared servers. Just visit the web host forum in order to locate the domain name to use. Just make sure the owner of the domain utilizes the shared hosting package that you intend to use. The result may not be accurate. There may be sites that have not been indexed by search engines. In addition to this, there may be sites that use a dedicated IP. However, it is perhaps the easiest method to gather such data.

It is also important to check whether the email server of the web host is listed in spam databases. If your mail server has a blacklisted IP, your outgoing emails may not reach the recipients. Use a spam database lookup to do this. When it comes to shared hosting, one mail server is used by many people. Even if you buy a dedicated IP for your site, it does not mean you will get a dedicated IP for your emails. A shared IP address is still used. This is the reason that it is wise to check whether there are users who have misused the mail server.

Flash has been widely used to create high quality animations and interactive content. When it comes to web design, many webmasters prefer flash to Javascript. A beautiful template that incorporates a drop-down menu, fade in out transitions, skin elements or an animated logo can be created using this multimedia authoring program.

Now, you may want to know whether or not you can use Flash for your site. Different unlimited web hosting companies have different policies regarding it. However, if what you want is to provide an interactive content for your visitors, then it should not be a problem for most hosting plans. This vector animation program is a client-side application. Popular web browsers such as IE, Firefox and Safari support it. As long as your visitors have installed the required plugin on their browsers, then they can enjoy your content.

With Hostgator’s shared hosting plan, for instance, you can build things like a flash arcade site. Using SWF files for interactive content is allowed. What is not allowed is to host a game server or a multiplayer game like quake that eat up too many server resources.

You cannot also use a shared server for flash video streaming. Shared hosting plans normally do not come with a streaming flash server such as Adobe Flash Server or Red 5. For this purpose, you should opt for a VPS or a dedicated server or employ http streaming/progressive download. This also applies for real time applications that are used by multiple users such as a chat room.

Because of the advantages, Flash has become the foundation of numerous dynamic websites. This technology can be utilized in various platforms, including mobile phones and PDAs (except iPhone and iPad). With Flash, there is no need to worry about cross-browser compatibility issues. Just remember that if you want to conduct live video streaming, make sure you pick the right hosting plan.

Many website owners have been familiar with what the industry calls unlimited web hosting service. An unlimited hosting plan is where you are allowed to host multiple domain names and to use unmetered bandwidth as well as disk space. Here are several benefits that you can get from using this kind of service.

1. This is a cheap way to publish multiple websites. You will save much money by not having to create a separate account for each of your site. You can host numerous websites covering different topics. It is very useful for you who want to promote different products. With an unlimited domain hosting service, you can build different types of websites such as classified ads or web directories and host the sites under a single account.

2. It will be easier for you to manage all of your websites. All can be accessed by logging into a single control panel. Things like observing the stats can be accomplished easily. No need to keep more than one usernames and passwords. The FTP account for your root directory can be used to access your add-on domains. Not only this kind of hosting plan will save you money, but will also save much of your time.

3. There is no need to worry about over-usage fees. Compare this with traditional hosting plans that will charge you if you happen to exceed their bandwidth allocation. On top of that, your account will never be suspended for excessive use. This means you will be more assured that your sites will always be up and running.

4. A good unlimited web hosting service allows you to create multiple FTP and email accounts for each of your domain. You may take advantage of this feature to outsource some work to freelancers or VA. You can hire someone and give her an email account, for instance, to handle all pre-sales or technical questions.

5. With the unlimited subdomain feature, you can create folders dedicated for various things. You can create a number of subdomains to host a forum, an image gallery and a web directory for each website that you have. With cPanel, files that need protection can be stored in password protected directories. This feature is very useful for people who sell more than one downloadable products.

If you have decided to choose a web hosting plan that allows you to host multiple websites, then you may want to know different types of websites that you can build today. As unlimited domain hosting services usually provide you with features such as a script library and free templates, building a number of sites where each has specific objectives can be accomplished faster and easier. Even with a shared server you can still build sites that are not purely informational. Below are some categories of websites based on different aspects.

Based on the type of content

Text
Numerous websites out there are still composed of textual content. An article directory is a great example of a text based site. You can use server side scripts provided by articlems or article dashboard to build an article directory. Websites that present famous quotes or song lyrics also fall within this category.

Video
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “online video”? If you are like me than you probably imagine video sharing sites like YouTube or Dailymotion. However, it does not mean you have to build another video sharing site if you want to use videos as your primary site content. You may have come across microsites that present visitors with a single video.

Image
Photos are often used to make webpages visually appealing. There are also numerous sites that feature a large collection of images. Coppermine is one of the most populer photo gallery scripts today. This free rich-feature software can be installed easily using Fantastico.

Music
FindSounds.com is a search engine that you can use to locate sound effects on the internet. There are also places such as soundcloud.com where you can upload and share music or sounds that you have already created. Internet radio station is another example of this type of site.

Tools
If you hate writing, then you can create a free online application for your visitors using PHP, javascript, flash or other programming language. You can find programmers at freelance sites such as oDesk to help you create things like mortgage calculator or flash game.

Based on the source of content

Self Generated
If you enjoy writing articles, creating caricature or have a good knowledge in web programming then creating the content yourself is perhaps the best route to go. Outsourcing content creation is another strategy to build your website.

User Generated
Article directory, image gallery and question-answer service and forums are types of sites that allow people to publish their own content. Although you can install phpBB script on a subdomain to create a forum for your infomational site, nothing wrong with building a standalone forum.

Merchant Datafeed
Many online stores that offer various types of products provides people with datafeeds that contain their inventory. However, it seems that the popularity of datafeed powered site is decreasing due to search engines do not give it much value.

Content Grabbing
This is another way of creating content automatically. Scripts like WPRobot are utilized to grab articles, images or videos from other websites.

Based on the volume

Microsite
Website that only consists of a sales letter or an opt-in page can be categorized into this category. But there are microsites that are meant for fun.

Minisite
Different people have different opinions about minisite. However, it may be safe to say that this category includes sites that consist of about five webpages. They normally focus on a very specific topic.

Large site
This category referes to websites that are filled with a large number of content. Usually they cover a broad range of topics. You can build an authority site that includes articles, online surveys, a forum and an image gallery.

Based on the functionality

Personal
If you only want to build few webpages to share your photo album with friends and family, then there is no need to utilize an unlimited web hosting service. Just host the content at a reliable free hosting.

Commercial
This includes sites that are intended to sell your own product or to promote other peoples’ products. Many people build a network of sites as a part of their link building strategy.

Educational
FunBrain is an example of this category. It is intended for kids who want to learn math or reading in a fun way. Drupal, a very populer CMS, is often utilized to manage education-related websites.

Just For Fun
It is a great idea to build an entertaining site that makes people laugh. From funny quotes from comedians to silly jokes, there are various types of content that will keep visitors entertained.

If you use an unlimited domain web hosting such as Hostgator, you can actually do the backup process easily. Just login into the cPanel and from there you have access to the backup control panel. Click the Backups link. It is the most easiest way to achive multiple sites at once, especially if your sites have databases. Then simply click the “Download or Generate a Full Website Backup” button. Next, select the Backup Destination from the dropdown menu and insert your email addess in the box provided to get email notification of backup completion. Finally, click the “Generate” button. The process usually does not require much time. After you receive the email notification, there will be “Backups Available for Download” message in the Backup control panel. Click the .tar.gz file to download your entire sites. Once you get the the files and configurations of your websites, do not forget to make at least two copies of the archive.

This is a very simple process. However, there are few things that you need to keep in mind. If you use Hostgator shared or reseller account, for instance, you can not conduct the full backup process right away if your data is larger than 4 GB. You need to ask for their help. It is also important to notice the number of inodes. Make sure you do not exceed the limit. Different hosting companies apply different rules about it. To check out the quantity of your existing inodes, just take a look at the sidebar of your cPanel. If you have inode problem during the backup process, try to eliminate the unused ones. You can do this by deleting unused files through File Manager and databases. Another thing that you should know is that you cannot restore the backup copy of your sites through cPanel. However, a number of web host providers provide users with a special form dedicated for accomplishing this task for free. Of course, if you use a dedicated hosting plan, then your web host normally enables you to restore your own full backups as you are the root user of the server.

The above manual cPanel backup should be conducted regularly. Although you can use a special script to do it automatically, keep in mind that things can go wrong. Content Managements Systems such as WordPress actually have special plugins or modules that make it possible for you to accomplish it. However, once again, doing it manually is still the best strategy.

In addition to this, you can also backup each of your MySQL databases via cPanel. Using the above full backup process, your databases are actually also included. But if you only want a copy of your database, then you can do the following: First, click the “Backups” link. Then choose the name of the database that you intend to download. Finally, select the local destination folder and start the process. Restoring the MySQL Database can also be accomplished easily by uploading the .sql.gz file via the Backups section.

It seems that nearly all popular shared web host providers are now featuring ‘unlimited’ plans that allow users to host unlimited domains and utilize disk space, bandwidth, databases and other features in an unlimited number. However, there are still a number of limitations to this kind of hosting plan. For instance, there are some prohibited uses of their resources. Below are some common prohibited activities on web hosting.

First, you should avoid to conduct spamming at all cost. Although in theory you are allowed to utilize unlimited bandwidth, spamming can overload the service. Moreover, this act can disrupt other site owners. Keep in mind that spamming is not limited to transmitting unsolicited emails. This also includes sending out messages to a mailing list which is not double opt-in. To avoid experiencing problems from this activity, web hosting providers usually only allow a certain number of emails per hour to be sent from a hosting account.

Normally you are also not allowed to use the server as an anonymous proxy. Setting up an online proxy website can affect other users on the same server. Usually proxies are used to conduct spamdexing. An example of this activity is to submit comment spam to hundreds of blog sites. If you want to defend your anonymity on the internet then you should use a private proxy that runs on your PC or a VPN service. I use StrongVPN for this purpose (not for spamming).

Although unlimited web hosting plans offer unlimited disk space, this does not mean their servers can be used as an online strorage. In other words, do not use their services to achive your files, except the ones needed for hosting your sites. Of course to some extent you are allowed to store few electronic files. For instance you may want to give a free software for your opt-in subscribers. In many cases it will be fined as long as it does not have a negative effect on the server performance.

Clearly, even though hosting plans that comes with an ‘unlimited package’ offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space, there are still some prohibited activities that must no be engaged. Things like conducting a banner exchange service are usually not allowed. The prohibitions normally also apply to other types of web hosting services. Just stay away from any illegal or disruptive activity that can affect other users and the performance of your web host, including the ones that can cause service interruptions to any network outside.

There are two primary factors that are vital when it comes to choosing a web hosting service. You need to consider the volume of your website and the traffic that you are likely to get. Based on these you can go with an appropriate hosting plan.

The amount of data that gets transferred is known as bandwidth. When someone opens a webpage of your site, he actually downloads all the files associated with the page that he is visiting. There may be different types of files for the page, from video to image. If the files are all stored locally on the server, then the amount of data transmitted from your server to hir/her PC can be large.

There is a way to figure out the amount of bandwidth that you will require for your website. In order to do this, you need to know the average size of your web pages and the number of expected monthly visitors. If on the average, the size of your webpage is 40 kb and you expect to get 1000 monthly visitors then your bandwidth requirement would be 40 megabytes (40 x 1000 = 40000 kb). There are companies that provide twenty gigabytes of bandwidth which is a decent amount. This should be enough for an average sized website with up to one thousand visitors a day.

These days, there are numerous companies that advertise unlimited “unlimited bandwidth”. They assume that a website is not going to use all of the bandwidth. In the real world, there is no such a thing as unmetered bandwidth. So when choosing a hosting package you need to read the Terms of Use carefully. Read about things that you should avoid here.

A web hosting service that features unlimited bandwidth is actually a good choice. You do not need to worry about being charged for excess bandwidth usage. It will also ensure that your site will not run out of bandwidth. As long as your site does not degrade the performance of their server, you should be fine. Just make sure to choose a reputable company and ask your queries related to bandwidth usage. Make sure you get clear answers.