As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration.

What reseller control panel features will reduce your workload? What hosting software programs are integrated with the reseller control panel or work with it? What website control panel features will your clients like?

In this article, we’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:

• Alabanza

• cPanel

• H-Sphere

• Plesk

All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features — advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-language support, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development.

Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.

Alabanza

When you become an Alabanza reseller, you don’t just have a reseller account — you lease a dedicated server from Alabanza. Alabanza owns the control panel the server, and you resell directly for Alabanza. If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create.

Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:

• Account creation

• Billing and invoice management

• Credit card processing

• Domain registration

• Email notifications

• Ordering fraud protection

Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.

DSM also integrates with bulkregister.com for domain name registration. It does not easily integrate with other domain registrars, though.

A key Alabanza feature that resellers can offer their clients is the Xpress Product Suite, which provides web development and email management tools. The Xpress Product Suite includes SiteXpress, a website-building program that features over 300 templates and requires no web design skills.

cPanel

For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.

A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:

• WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.

• From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.

With the addition of an optional program, WHM AutoPilot, you can automate account creation and suspension, email notifications, and other tasks. WHM AutoPilot also integrates with common payment gateways and has a helpdesk, an invoice module, and other tools.

H-Sphere

H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.

The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.

From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. For example, when setting up a new plan, the administrator has two pages of features to choose from, including setup and monthly pricing for optional services.

Beginning webmasters may find H-Sphere too complicated for their needs. More advanced users, however, appreciate the features and control that H-Sphere offers the end user. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.

H-Sphere comes with the website builder SiteStudio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.

Plesk

Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms.

With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:

• Server administrator

• Client / reseller

• Domain owner

• Mail user

Each level of the control panel gives the user control of that level and the level(s) below it. Email users, for example, can log into their mail user control panel to change their password, add autoresponders, and change other personal settings without having access to the domain owner control panel.

Plesk handles SpamAssassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level.

This feature enables users to whitelist or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.

SWsoft, the company behind Plesk, also offers SiteBuilder, a five-step website builder using pre-built templates. SiteBuilder has over 300 templates in different categories to choose from, and users can publish their sites without any HTML or FTP knowledge.

If your Plesk reseller account is with a web host that offers HSPcomplete, you will have some automation available with your account, such as credit card charges and email notification.



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Some people like to think that expert database programmers just sprout up out of the ground while the rest of us are left trying to fumble our way through the complexities of Visual Basic and Standard Query Language (SQL). But many of you may be shocked to find that these experts started out much like you and me. The difference? They found a way to go from confusion to understanding. I know that you are thinking to yourself, “Well that’s easy to say, but how can I become one of those individuals?” With a few tricks, some tinkering, and a little effort, you will be one step closer to reaching your goal.

 

The first thing to understand is that MS Access was created to be used by large companies and individuals. In other words, it can be as complex or as simple as the user desires. This allows the program to grow in complexity as your knowledge and skills increase.

 

The first step to becoming an Access expert is understanding that it WILL take some time to get comfortable with the program. That is why it is crucial to remain calm and not get frustrated. Learning becomes extremely difficult when we are frustrated or tense so let’s dismiss that from the picture immediately.

 

Once you are no longer frustrated, we can begin our lesson. One of the great things about MS Access is the help feature. Because Access was intended for individuals, the developers included an extensive help base with the software. To neglect making use of this feature would be unwise. The next great thing about MS Access is that it provides online help if you are unable to find what you are looking for in the included help file. This should be used after exhausting the included help feature.

 

If neither of these help features is working, I would suggest going to a popular search engine such as Google and typing a brief question about what you are trying to accomplish (e.g. “How to create MS Access queries in VB”). This has bailed me out of trouble many times when I was trying to do something very specific and could not find an answer in either help file mentioned above.

 

The next bit of advice that I can give you is this: don’t be afraid to tinker around. Most of my knowledge of database programming came from sitting in front of my computer screen during my free time. Trust me, it is time well spent. Not only will it help you solve your problem, but you will gain familiarity with the program and its features.

 

As a final piece of advice, I urge you to spend time every day “tinkering” with the program. Even if it is only for 10-15 minutes, the constant exposure will pay off in the long run. I find that going to the help feature and finding an article related to something I’m interested in learning how to do helps me immensely. With some practice and a little bit of time, you will undoubtedly become very efficient with your database programming.



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In the last couple of days many Google AdWords accounts have been suspended. Most of the AdWords customers are wondering as to why their accounts are suspended. All that the Google’s AdWords customer receives is an email from the Google AdWords Team stating that your account has been suspended and your advertisements will not run in Google. The reason being non compliance with Google’s terms of service and advertising policies. Have you received one such email from the Google’s Team?

These accounts that are suspended are mostly from customers who are either new to AdWords or have outsourced their AdWords Optimization to third parties to do so.

The problem faced in such situations creates a bad experience for the AdWords customers and an additional burden to Google AdWords reviewers. However, who is responsible for such things. Let’s take a closer look at each of these 2 cases and understand what happens and how problems can be prevented.

Many customers who are new to AdWords are unaware of Google’s Policies and Terms and Conditions that they need to adhere to while setting up their accounts. Google’s Help Center does provide all the necessary information for the new customers but many of them ignore it and just get started right away. They start with the AdWords account creation by creating the new campaigns, ad groups, and stuffing a huge list of keywords. The next thing that happens is a good amount of money is spent as a daily budget and then one fine day one is shocked with an email that their account is suspended.

On the other hand, many customers who want to use AdWords and do not know how to use it outsource it to third party providers. These providers are contacted through any project bidding site. There these customers post their requirements and set a budget that they think they can afford. Many of the providers bid on those projects. Some providers bid as low as $50 for a project that is worth $500. Looking at the affordable price many customers award these AdWords projects to these providers. End result, in most cases dissatisfaction!

After a few days the AdWords customer gets very disappointed and posts a negative remark against the provider in the project bidding system. And then after a few days their account also gets suspended.

So what would be the solution to prevent such situations from occurring? The solution lies in searching for a good provider who has the necessary credentials for optimizing an AdWords account.

Ask your provider if they are GAP certified? GAP stands for Google AdWords Professional. This certification is only awarded when a person writes an online exam and is well versed with the Google Policies and Terms and Conditions? Find out if your provider has any hands on experience in optimizing Google AdWords accounts? For how long has your provider been optimizing Google AdWords accounts? Has your provider hired any staff from Google? How will they go about optimizing the Google AdWords account? Most important of all is whether the provider offers to take a look at your account to understand what needs to be optimized or just jumps into the project to earn money regardless of the fact that the account needs an initial diagnosis and study.

You may also come across instances where your account is permanently suspended and even if you try opening a new account with different information, you are likely to get suspended again. The reason being Google having a well built out system to track the advertiser through various means.

So, in this scenario you will not be able to use Google paid advertising which could have got you that instant traffic and conversions. But don’t let this disappoint you. You still stand a good chance to advertise on Google – but this time it’s not AdWords but through organic search. Yes, this is one area where you can promote your website through SEO (search engine optimization) and show on top of the search results of Google.

There are unlimited opportunities waiting for you and it is up to you to decide if you want to cry over lost AdWords opportunity or to venture out for more opportunities using SEO and hitting on top of the search engines.

Most of us will always like to make the optimum use of our hard-earned money. But what is the use if you can’t reap the benefits of your investment. In most cases, low priced services do not offer the best quality. They are low priced because the quality is compromised. Hire the right person and pay the right price for your Google AdWords optimization and prevent your account from being suspended or if you are unable to advertise through AdWords, then have the best SEO Company to promote your website and rank you on top in the search engines.

The choice is now in your hands!



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