Web Hosting Directories- Are they helpful?

[1PlanHost]

Thanks Spiv for the clarification. Don't misunderstand me here. I am also frustrated with those "Top 10 or Top 100" affiliate sites that rake the money in from their advertisers and then turn around and purchase Google Adwords so they can do it some more. Most of those also charge the host considerably for the "priviledge" of being there and that is why only the bigger companies profit from it. I was not commenting on those types.

Yet a WHD that lists our affiliate program and promotes it (without cost to us as the advertiser other than the affiliate payout) is in my opinion a great deal for any host in that they get the additional marketing exposure and sales resulting from it. Yes, those with agressive marketing budgets win the most but the smaller host can win as well.

As for "fake SEO sites" I am not convinced that they are "fake" at all. Most are set up as legitimate web sites that contain relevant content and that is what pushes them up to the top of the search engines. People want relevant content and for their searches to return relevant results. There is nothing in my opinion wrong with that at all! The days of spamming the search engines with numerous doorway pages are thankfully over. Search Engine Optimized web sites with relevant content and legitimately earned backlinks (from people who link to those sites because they are good) are FAR from being "fake" and they certainly are not considered as doorway pages.

TRUTH TEST: How many of you would turn down the opportunity to own this forum, HostSearch.com or WebHostingTalk.com or any other major hosting forum or directory if the price was affordable? Didn't think so, That is my point

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[earthstar]

If you see iPowerweb in the top 3, the WHD is being paid by them. Actually the WHD is probably being paid for at least their "top 5 listings" . Period.

[2mhost.com]

Hi,

side note about webhosting.info, i do not know how exactly they get information, but if you went their and selected Egypt, you will find many servers of 2mhost.com listed their, like 2msrv2.com in top, alexsrv15.com #3, ....

but the truth that none of number of domains listed is correct, but far from truth.

the strange thing is 2mhost servers are located in USA so why i'm Listed in Egypt?


so finally .. do not trust what you read in WHD "alone" .. you may pick a host for further research.

[1PlanHost]

I did a simple whois on 2msrv2.com and it clearly says the company owner is located in Egypt and that is where they are pulling that part of the information from. The name server IP address 66.78.36.223 is located in Clifton, New Jersey, United States but hey, your #1 in Egypt which is great!

domain: 2msrv2.com
status: production
owner: Mohammed Noman
email: admin@alexcity.net
address: 19 Azziz Kohil st., San Stefano
city: Alexandria
state: Alex
postal-code: 00000
country: EG
admin-c: admin@alexcity.net
#0tech-c: admin@alexcity.net
#0billing-c: admin@alexcity.net
#0nserver: ns1.2msrv2.com 66.78.56.236nserver: ns2.2msrv2.com 66.78.61.44registrar: JORE-1created: 2002-08-20 00:56:38 UTC JORE-1modified: 2004-08-25 18:30:20 UTC JORE-1expires: 2005-08-19 18:56:17 UTC source: joker.comdb-updated: 2004-09-23 16:37:17 UTC

I have found http://www.webhosting.info/webhosts to be useful and accurate. While it may not be 100% accurate there is only a small margin of error in thier reports as far as I can tell from my own research on it. If you read their documentation you will see how they determine locations and resolve hosts.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success!

[2mhost.com]

Hi,

yes its great to appear #1 in Egypt, but point is that server they list not host 1800 domains .. i can not call that un-accurate .. because server host less than %20 of 1800 domains .. so i'm not #1 (depend on what they say) and webhosting.info give WRONG information about that.

any way, i do not consider whebhosting.info a web hosting directory .. its portal for hosts (read by hosts) not by end users

[1PlanHost]

Agreed that they are not a WHD and are instead a resource for finding out information concerning web hosting companies and their claims.

The 1800+ domains they are listing are from ALL servers that are using the same name servers, not one individual server unless the company only has one server.

The way to tell how many domains are on a single server is to use their reverse IP lookup tool. Go to http://www.webhosting.info and enter a server IP address in the search box and select IP address button and you will see what I mean.

Or you can use the new advanced whois tool. For example
http://whois.webhosting.info/216.74.74.91 shows 13 domains hosted at the same IP address as 2MSRV2.COM is using.

Best Wishes for a .Net Success

[hostingconcept]

Hi,

I think web directory is very important and specially web hosting ratings.

[priyanka]

hmm, I feel that WHD is good for newbies if they want to compare the price and plans of different web hosts but when it comes to selection of web host then WHD is not reliable.

[highpr]

I agree that the unscrupulous directories will simply list the hosts offering the highest affiliate bounties first.

However, this doesn't represent the business practices of all hosting directories. Quite a few actually provide good information useful in choosing a web hosting company.