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Web Hosting Secret Revealed – A Review of the Web Hosting Reviews Site

WHSR - a web host review blog

WHSR - a web host review blogNot all web hosting service providers are created equal, and that’s a fact. If you’ve ever been turned off by the complexity and confusion of a jumbled up user interface, been overcharged for domain names and hosting, or waited days for a support ticket to get answered that seemed to have been abandoned, then most likely, you’re with a crappy host service.

Webmasters and blog owners deserve better. But where do you begin? With hundreds of hosting service providers out there (perform a Google search if ye’ be brave enough), how do you know which is the best? The short answer is that you don’t need to, because Web Hosting Secret Revealed (WHSR) is a web hosting reviews site without a bias.

Background on WHSR

WHSR is the brainchild of Jerry Low, the site’s sole owner and contributor. He started the site after a terrible experience with Network Eleven, a host he frequently decries throughout the pages, and after having found no legitimate host review sites that dig deeper than the surface. In contrast with his competitors, Jerry actually signs up, launches, and manages sites with the provider’s integrated products and features before writing a review.

Jerry has been working with Hostgator, Bluehost, and Lunapages for over 5 years, and he’s constantly signing up for new accounts on multiple providers, all in an effort to bring about the most thorough, subjective reviews he can produce. One brush over his site, and you’ll get the feeling Jerry has accomplished a pretty respectable feat in and of his purpose alone.

What you’ll see on the site

The first thing we did in our review of WHSR was to take a look at the sitemap. With more than 250 links to various articles, blog posts, and pages, the first impression is that the site is well populated. As far as the overall style of writing is concerned, the articles and reviews are easy to read whether you’re a beginner or a pro.

We especially like that the pages are tailored to the reader’s need for visiting the site, an attribute that a long-standing blog tends to develop only over time. For example, if you’re new to web hosting services and this is your first blog or site launch, cruise over to the “Hosting Classroom”, a virtual vault of information, definitions, how-to’s, and beginner’s introductions to the vast world of web hosting.

And if you’re just looking for a review of a specific provider, Jerry has probably already covered them, and you don’t even have to look that hard – simply click on the “Web Hosting Reviews” tab. If finding out which host providers are great at what is your approach, check out the “Hosting Awards” page, broken up by specialties and categories. Compare and contract providers that have the best prices, or find out who offers the best business hosting (Hostgator took that award – check out Jerry’s review here).

One last piece of content on the site worth mentioning is Jerry’s interview with Jason Cohen, co-founder of WPEngine, back in mid-2010. A serial web entrepreneur well known in the WordPress development community, Jason launched WPEngine as a hosting platform specifically for WordPress-based sites and blogs. In an extensive Q&A session, Jerry picked Jason’s brain about the speed, scalability, and security his platform provides in a fun and interesting dialogue. Read the interview here.

Why not let someone else do the leg work for you when choosing your hosting provider? The reviews at Web Hosting Secret Revealed are first-hand accounts of a real customer, not just copy-and-paste text from the provider’s sales pages. Don’t get burned by a bad host ever again!

Book Review: Logo Design Love by David Airey

The book’s full title is “Logo Design Love: A Guide To Creating Iconic Brand Identities” and is published by New Riders. The idea for this book spawned from David’s website logodesignlove.com and also the popularity of his own blog davidairey.com and aims to share David’s own experiences in Logo design, how to design effective logos, how to deal and interact with clients and how to create your own iconic designs, plus a whole lot more

Disclaimer: I actually won a copy of this book via a competition on David’s blog, but I’ve not been asked to review it or received anything in return for reviewing it. What follows is my honest opinion on this book and nothing else.

Just in case you have not heard of David Airey, here is the bio published on the back of the book:

A self-employed graphic designer from Northern Ireland, David Airey writes two of the most popular graphic design blogs on the internet: www.davidairey.com and www.logodesignlove.com. David’s blogs have attracted hundreds of thousands of loyal fans who read and are inspired by his writing every day.

And you can also follow him on Twitter.

Logo Design Love book.

The book contains eleven chapters, split into three main sections which are:

  • The Importance of Brand Identity
  • The Process of Design
  • Keep the Fires Burning

Additionally there is also a design resources section at the end.

Chapter One

The first chapter takes you through the importance of solid branding and obviously how crucial it is for the company’s logo to have the desired impression on potential customers. David then poses the question: How many logos do you see through out the day? Before then taking pictures of all the branding he sees in the first 33 minutes of his day – 33 in fact. Again this highlights the importance of the brand to any company, an ethos which is mentioned time and time again throughout the course of this book. The chapter ends by highlighting one of my favourite logos and one very well known one: The Food Writers Guild and a quote from its creator, Katie Morgan. This sets a trend in the book – throughout some of David’s favourite logos are highlighted, above all, this book is just a superb source of inspiration.

Davidson Logo by David Airey

Davidson Locksmith logo by David Airey.

Chapter Two

Chapter two is titled “The Stories we Tell” and highlights logos that have a certain history behind them – the most obvious example being the Kellogg’s logo. Others are highlighted and the story behind their origin is told – again this serves as great inspiration but is very interesting. This chapter is one of the shorter and contains some very good information.

Chapter Three

Chapter three in my opinion is one of the best in the book and is titled “The Elements of Iconic Design”. Besides teaching the reader about these seven elements, each is coupled with some examples of some purely brilliant logos which really is fantastic. I should mention the book is printed in colour at this point – and I’m so glad it is. Black and white would not do some of these logos justice. The book is also brilliantly designed. After reading this chapter it’s clear that David really knows his stuff and some of the content is really superb. There’s a lot of “aha!” moments and some really killer stuff in there. Most of all, valuable tips that I’ll certainly be putting into practise.

Chapter Four

From here on the book moves into interacting with clients – chapter 4 covers the steps to take before designing the logo itself. The key message here seems to be to make full use of the brief the client gives you and then collecting a wealth of information from that client. David even lists the questions he asks and some information about the type of answers you want to get. You should also lay down some clear objectives. A lot of people (me included) tend to jump right into a new project – whether it be a logo or a new web app. This chapter brings you back down to earth almost and once more is a really worth while chapter. Even if you don’t necessarily do logo design, I’d suggest reading this one.

Henri Ehrhart Logo

Henri Ehrhart Logo by David Airey

Chapter Five & Six

Chapter Five is all about redesigns and the hazards of them – including the infamous “Tropica” redesign. If you’ve been asked to redesign rather than starting from scratch you should step carefully. David explains what you should do that might differ from the usual steps and the different ways in which to go about redesign and common pitfalls, again valuable information. Chapter Six then moves onto pricing design – a highly debated topic and something I think everyone finds difficult as a freelancer of any profession, but especially in web design & development.

Chapter Seven & Eight

Chapter Seven is probably my favourite chapter in the book – although I think I might have already said that! This chapter is titled “Pencil to PDF” and discusses the process from initial ideas through to signing off the design and passing it onto the client, including mind mapping, which is something I think everyone could do. As usual the chapter is coupled with some superb illustrations and logos. Into chapter eight, and the subject moves on to interacting with clients, or “the art of the conversation” as David puts it. This is a pretty hefty chapter covering different ways of getting your point across, but also not being too pushy. David points out a logo in which a client’s favourite design for a logo he was doing was not the one he preferred – but he accepted that with hindsight it does suit the firm more. Many common issues made by both client and designer are covered here and David makes some points – I found that when you read them you realise that it is just common sense but often people do something without actually realising.

Vissumo logo by David Airey

Vissumo logo by David Airey

Chapter Nine Through Eleven

After the eighth chapter you move into part 3 of the book, titled “Keep the fires burning”. Chapter nine covers the million dollar question – how to stay motivated, including lots of tips from not just David himself but also other logo designers. If I’m honest, there was nothing here that was particularly amazing, nothing that has not been said already, but still some valuable information. In Chapter ten David takes questions that he gets commonly asked on Twitter or via his blog and answers them, in a lot of detail. Questions range from copyright issues, to getting work, to dealing with problem clients and a whole lot more. I felt this chapter to be invaluable as it takes questions that multiple people have asked – many of which I would ask myself, and it’s great to see David taking the time to respond. Often things that might not make it into a book are brought up when doing this format for a chapter and it’s really worthwhile. Finally to end it off Chapter eleven is “25 Practical Logo Design Tips” which I found to essentially be a summary of the book and the key points to take away with you and having it at the end is a great reminder for some of those things you read earlier that might have slipped your mind. David ends with a small section with some design resources – mainly books that he would recommend. If “Logo Design Love” has wet your appetite, then there’s plenty more books to read having looked at this section!

Conclusion

To conclude I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in designing brands, or to be honest anyone who works designing anything. Even if some parts are specifically towards logo design, as you would expect from a book titled “Logo Design Love”, there are lots of tips you can apply to web design as well, and the sections on dealing with clients are invaluable whatever the field. Head over to logodesignlovebook.com to order your copy now!

Mockflow: Review and Giveaway

Mockflow is a relatively new entrant to the Wireframing application market and today I take a look at it and take you along with me in my 17 minute video review. To fully test it out I use it to mock up The Web Squeeze’s current homepage.

The final result looked something like this:
MockFlow - Wireframes for software and web projects

The Video Review

What I liked about Mockflow

  • Run in browser – can be used on any computer with an internet connection
  • Everything is hosted online, this means that you can give other people access (NB: Pro Account only)
  • It feels very quick – like the developers have really put effort into optimising it.
  • Loads of components already there – literally everything you need to wireframe either a website or application.

What I didn’t like about Mockflow

  • It’s very limited space for the free account, and $49 per year is not cheap (but not expensive either). A “lifetime” license for a bit more money would be a good option I feel.
  • The fact it is online does mean that I need an internet connection – not so bad for me as I work primarily at home but if you are someone with a laptop always on the go this could become a problem – again I would love to see a desktop version which would let you work offline but then would upload all your things when you got a connection.
  • Keyboard shortcuts did not work – it may be my machine but all the usual shortcuts like Cmd+Z did not work, a bit of a pain.

Win a years license!

We are giving away 1 year’s worth of pro account worth $49! To enter all you need to do is tweet this:

@TheWebSqueeze are giving away 1 year of Mockflow Pro Account! Follow them and RT this to win! #twsmockflow

Please only do this once! Multiple tweets will not give you any advantage in the competition.

It’s vital you include the hashtag, as that’s how we will search twitter to find all the entrants. We will reveal the winner next week!