I get a lot of people asking me about how and where to host a website.  For those of you who don’t have any experience with hosting, sometimes you might feel overwhelmed with your options – but I will try and simplify it for you.

If you are just starting out or creating a personal page, free web hosting is a good option.  It may not be as fast as a paid option, but if it does the trick for you it is okay.  Now, the one thing you may or may not like is that the hosting company usually puts ads on your site – they need to make money to pay for the hosting after all.  So, if you are using it for business purposes, it may not be appropriate for you.

The next option for you would be cheap web hosting.  Now I know here that I put the word cheap in the sentence – but don’t get too cheap – you still get what you pay for.  Now you can expect reliable hosting to start at about five dollars, with plans up to twenty dollars or so being still considered cheap.  You can place your own ads on these sites so it can open another revenue stream (if that is what you are after).  There are also more options in terms of features and you can run more than just a simple site.

Lastly, for you business owners out there, there is an option out there for you.  A business web hosting package can handle more traffic as well as it is usually more reliable.  You can expect to pay a little more for these packages, but for a business the features and the reliability is usually worth it.

Another thing to consider is that most web hosts either have a Live Help, or telephone support – you can ask them questions before you buy, to be sure you get the right hosting package for you.  Don’t forget that you can also upgrade your hosting package as your site grows – so you don’t need the best package on the market to start out.

Now, if you know me, I am not the best creative writer.  Ask me to write a story for you, chances are that it will be worse than what a five year old could come up with.  But, if you were to give me some facts and ask me to write an article for you, I could do that easily.

So, when my buddy asked me to be his best man – I initially hesitated.  I mean, the best man part wasn’t the problem, but I am sure the the wedding toasts would be.  I needed to find myself a solution where I didn’t have to write anything.

Where did I look?  The Internet.

Now, the Internet is a wonderful place.  I was able to find free wedding toasts and customize them to fit my needs.  I even found a software package that could create instant wedding speeches and toasts.  But it cost money, and since I am cheap, I decided to pass.

All I have to do is practice the speech and memorize it.  Good thing I have three weeks to do that – I don’t really like memorizing things either.

I sure get a lot of different types of junk mail in my mailbox (my real life one).  Now, most of the flyers I get end up getting recycled, but there was one today that caught my eye – and I would like to share what I read with you.

The title is what got me to read the pamphlet: "Parent Involvement: The Crisis our Children Face."  Now it sounded kind of gloomy, but I wanted to know what it was about.

Now as I was reading the pamphlet, the message was clear – due to the busier lifestyles that we are living parent involvement in education has declined over the past twenty years, resulting in a lower level of education for our children.  Now this doesn’t just mean lower grades in school, but our children are missing out on learning other life skills because of our choices with what we do with our time.

There has also been a decline in parent involvement in schools over the past twenty years.  This decline in involvement has meant that teachers have less individual time with the children – increasing the gap between the kids that don’t need help in school and those that too.  It follows the old adage that you can only go as slow as your slowest member – so there are times where the education level is not where it should be.

Whoa – I didn’t really have any idea that this was going on.  But now that I stop and think about it – it makes sense.  So for those of you that are parents listen up – get involved with your child’s life – they need you!

We won  a weird prize on the radio last week – we won free airfare to Orlando.  The funny thing about this prize is we won the plane trip, but the rest of the details are up to us.  Finding the right hotel, planning where we were going, and our meals were all things we had to figure out.

We have never been to Orlando before.  In fact, I really was not familiar with what we would even do there.  So, I decided to search online to figure out where we should go and what we should do.

I became excited when I found out that both Disney World and Universal Studios were in Orlando – we definitely have to go there.  Though our kids are getting older, I think they will definitely want to go to both places – we have all talked about going for years.

We also needed to find a place to stay.  I ended up getting some advice from a Disney World forum about which hotel we should stay at.  Seems that everyone recommends the Disney World Resort Hotels.  They rank very well for customer service and the testimonials from everyone were very positive.

So, we need to setup some things before we go.  Booking the hotel, and the rental car will be my first tasks.  I am so excited to go – just a few short months to go!

I am a big fan of lazy boy furniture.  I find it to be the most comfortable of all the furniture in my house.  I have had a lazy boy chair for the last ten years and it is still the most comfortable chair I have ever owned.

It is worn out cosmetically, but but the mechanism inside still works really well.  I was excited to find a lazy boy slipcover that  has given my chair some new life.  It matches the paint that we have in the living room, upgrading it from its’ worn out brown color.

I just recently found out that I can buy lazy boy office furniture for my office – and that gets me excited.  I was planning to replace what furniture I had down there anyway – and it will be nice to enjoy the same comfort I have at home while I am working.  My workers and clients will enjoy the simple comfort of a good chair – and in my mind I can see the positive reactions already.

I will always be a fan of Lazy boy.

I am going to be going to Las Vegas to attend a seminar on behalf of the company I work for.  This is a very exciting opportunity for me as I have not traveled much and have never been to Vegas.

When I did a search on Las Vegas hotels, I was completely overwhelmed by the number of results.  I decided that since my seminar was being held at the Bellagio Las Vegas, that I should stay there.  It was not to be as they are completely booked up.

I ended up getting reservations at the Excalibur Hotel.  It will actually end up being a lot cheaper and there is still plenty to do there.  I am hoping to take in the Tournament of Kings and possibly a Louie Anderson show.  Of course I will need to visit the spa and get pampered a little bit.  I won’t forget to spend some time at the casino either – isn’t that what Vegas is all about?

I am so excited about the trip – and I am counting down the number of days to go…

I have been considering getting a mobile phone.  Now, I don’t know if I really need one, but I think I would enjoy the convenience.  I know what you are thinking: I am behind on the times.  But to be honest, I have never really needed one until now.

So, I have been checking the mobile phone deals regularly in hopes of getting something good at a discount.  I haven’t really been in any kind of rush, but I have been keeping my eye out for a reason to buy and activate a phone.

The answer to my quest came today: seems that one store online is offering a free laptop if you sign an eighteen month contract – and the laptop is yours to keep, no strings attached.  I had to read the fine print a few times to make sure that this wasn’t a scam, but in fact the offer was legitimate.

Now, you might ask if I needed any time to decide whether I should take advantage of this deal or not, but do you really have to?  Of course I picked out a phone and applied for a new contract.  I cannot wait to pay my first bill and have my new laptop in hand – all I can say is that this is a screaming deal.

I just recently signed up for MySpace and so far the experience has been great.  I have added my friends, added my information, but something is missing.  I needed to think about it for a few minutes but then it came to my: the MySpace Layout I was using sucked.

Well, how could it not?  It was just the default layout and pretty much everyone had it.  I checked some of the free Myspace layouts for websites for something that would catch my eye – and would wow my visitors.  I did manage to find a "girly" layout that I could use – but I still needed to add something to it.

Alright.  I found just what I need – some custom Myspace graphics.  By using some trendy graphics, I have made my site look just as good as me.  I bet I’ll be the envy of my friends with what I’ve done.  For those of you who are my friends – come check my new profile out – you know where to look.

I have been considering setting up a human edited directory, but there seems to be quite a few online.  Not to get too discouraged, I decided a bit of research would be in order before I decided to start a directory or not.

First off, I needed to clarify the meaning of what a web directory is.  All I really knew was that a web directory was a place you could submit your site to, and was very similar to a search engine.  Looking at a few sites, I came to realize that a web directory is not much different than the Yellow pages in the phone book.

Realizing that webmasters will be trying to get their site listed on as many web directories as they can, I figured it would be worth setting a directory up. 

I also took a look at some directory blogs to get an inside scoop on the industry.  I learned about why webmasters look for web directories, and what features they are interested in.  I will incorporate some of these suggestions into my site.

Well, I need to go figure out what domain name to use.  So if you are considering creating a web directory, I think you should – though there are a lot of directories out there, there is always room for more.

Now, I know some of you out there may have problems paying your mortgage each month – and that is stressful.  The problem is that the eventual conclusion is that you are going to end up having your home repossessed – which is bad.  If this were to happen to you, you would not only lose your home but the roof over your head as well – and lets face it – that would suck.

Instead of contribution another home to your bank’s repossessed properties, you should take a look at the alternatives.  Now, I don’t mean try and win the lottery (though it would be nice), rather look at feasible alternatives.  The best one (or least painful if you will) that I would suggest is one that you can find online: a sell and rent back program.

Now, what a sell and rent back program is can be explained like this: you sell your home to the company providing you with this service (so that you can pay off your mortgage) and they rent your home back to you – it is as simple as that.  You don’t get kicked out of your home onto the street – rather you can stay where you are an pay rent instead of a mortgage payment.  Most of these companies also offer the option to buy back your house at a later date when your finances are in better shape.

If you are in this situation, and need some help to avoid repossession, look in your newspaper, phone book and online for a company that offers a sell and rent back program – and you’ll be happy you did.