Hey Guys,

Many people don’t know much about web hosting, so I thought I would give you my views on choosing a good hosting company for you. I will talk you through my experiences and what I have learnt. I have been with 4 different hosting companies and some have been really poor. In this article I am not going to name hosting companies, but I will tell you what to look out for:

Pricing

This is a very important one in most peoples eyes. You will find a lot of hosting companies with special offers, or discount now type signs, don’t be pulled in by them. I have learnt that cheap is not always better. As I said above I have been with 4 different hosts, two cheap and two expensive! I have got to say the expensive ones were a lot better and more reliably.

Try and look for a monthly option, what I have learnt in the past is that try a hosting company for one month, and if you like them pay for 1 year (usually cheaper). By only paying for a month will allow you to test there features and support etc…I bought a contract with a hosting company for two years (huge mistake!).

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Hey Guys,

Since its spring and I had a spare few hours I decided to spring clean my computer. I download at least one program a day, sometimes a lot more so I have to keep on top of things I use and I don’t use. The reason I download so many programs is because I like testing and trying new things. The internet is full of great freeware and I just cant get enough of it.

When I install software I tend to forget about it, and just clogs up my computer and can make it slower and not-as-powerful. I am going to take you guys through what I do. I really should do this sequence every week, or at least twice a month but time isn’t really on my side. Anyway heres the steps I take to making my computer faster/better/run smoother.

1. Uninstall Programs
As I said above I download a lot of programs, know if I just left all those programs on I would run out of space on my two hard-drives. I use a program called Revo Uninstaller, now this program is a lot better than the standard uninstaller that is found on most computers under the control panel. Revo Uninstaller scans your computer for all applications and games and will allows you to unistall them.

You simply select a program you don’t want anymore and click Uninstall, this will start the uninstall process, after the program has been uninstalled, Revo Uninstaller will look in your registry and look for folders that were not deleted in the uninstall process. If you use the Windows XP built in uninstaller, there is a high chance it will leave folders and registry entry’s on your computer, this can slow it down!

Once I have uninstalled all my programs that I do not use/need anymore I will look in MSCONFIG.

2. Managing Start-up Programs
I am a great fan of fast start up! This tip I am about to share has been posted all over the internet and its nothing new. Go to the start menu (or press the windows key) and click Run, then type msconfig:

Then press ok. This should show a box something like this:

Click the Startup tab and you will find all the items/programs that run on start-up. Now I have very little running on start-up, just basic things such as my sound card controller, anti-virus and thats it really. Nice and quick to load! I would recommend doing this as it can save a lot of loading time on start-up. After your have deselected the items you dont want, click Apply and restart your computer.

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Hey Guys,

Recently a friend; Travis Reynolds did a youtube video about why he blogs, I thought I would answer the same question, but in a lot more detail, I will explain how wizzhack came about and my adventures along the way.

I started blogging about 10 months ago, it was extremely casual and I didn’t really take anything seriously, my blog was orignally http://www.grenhorn.org/blog/wordpress - pretty rubbish URL if you ask me. The blog was the start of WizzHack - something that I wanted to be huge! I didn’t really do much on it, I used to do a few video tutorials, which were terrible!

First Video Tutorial: Changing Themes on Windows XP, that was recorded 9 months ago!

About 1 month into blogging someone from another forum had a hosting company who I thought was pretty cool at the time. The hosting was cheap and rubbish! I used to use www.wizzhack.com when I was with my friends hosting company, but the hosting was rubbish and gave up. Thinking I could use www.wizzhack.com with another hosting company, but I did not own wizzhack.com - I was so mad!

I then went and bought wizzhack.co.uk and I have had this ever since.

I enjoy blogging as it gives me time to think and write my thoughts. My English is not that great but as I blog more and read more articles to blog about, I have noticed a huge difference in the way I type and what words I use, so you could say blogging has increased my English skill.

Now WizzHack has over 550 posts with over 660 comments, its grown so much in the past few months and I cannot believe it. I have always wanted to create a ever-growing community online and meet new people like Chris Pirillo, I have met some really awesome people through my blog and I want to carry on meeting more and more.

We have a long way to go….but we will get there!

WizzKid

Hey Guys,

PicLens is a great plugin to view your pictures. The plugin is for Firefox, its great for viewing pictures in a cool 3D-View. Once you have down a Google Image Search then hover over any image and you will see a little play button, click that button and you can slide through all the photos on that page. This will work with more photo websites including flickr, Yahoo Images and also most social networking websites such as Bebo, Myspace and Facebook.

One thing I do not like about this is that when you perform a search through the application and have found an image you like, you cannot save that image onto your computer or find the URL for it, if the program developers made that a feature, it would be an awesome program. But for now its just for eye candy. I decided to do a video on PicLens:

Hey Guys,

A few days ago I put together a list of 8 Tips for Beginners for Ebay, well I thought I would carry on from that and write a few tips on sending an item you have sold. These might be obvious to some people, but here goes:

• They pay first - I didn’t really know how ebay worked in the terms of who goes first? Ebay clearly state that you should wait for the money first, either by postal cheque, paypal or any other way. Once you have received the money then you can carry on sending it.

• Be honest - Don’t lie about when you are going to send the item, make sure you use the right sending method that the buyer paid for he/she can find out and thus resulting in bad feedback. If you are un-able to send for a few days then just send them a message via ebay stating why and when you will send the item.

• Getting the package ready - Depending on the object, make sure its packaged well and safe, you don’t want the item arriving at the buyer and its broken do you? If you are writing their address, make sure its easily read, or if you are going to print the address off, make sure its stuck down well. Also include your address just in case the item has to be returned by your mail service.

• Once you have sent the item - Notify the buyer and make sure you marked the item as shipped on your My Ebay homepage. Tell them about any problem (if any) and what kind of service and carrier you sent the item with. Last but not least leave feedback on the buyer maybe stating; Fast Payment or Friendly Member…

Hope that helps anyone,

Thanks,

WizzKid