There are probably more web hosting services out there than there are beanie babies, making the task of finding a good service a really daunting one at times.

A site called Web Hosting Unleashed however aims to make the process of finding a hosting service much easier for you. When I accessed their site, the first thing I noticed when I loaded their main page was the SPEED. Usually hosting review sites are bloated with ads, scripts and whatnots, which makes the load time almost unbearable at times. Not so here, and believe me, this was a welcome relief.

The first thing my eyes were drawn to after the page loaded were a few hosting banner ads, which I immediately suspected of being affiliate links. I started thinking, “Oh great, not another one of those sites,” by which I meant spam sites that were light on content and heavy on the affiliate links. As I dug further though my suspicions melted away and I was convinced that this was thankfully a legitimate website for once. Yay!

Navigation is made easy via the use of menu tabs, though I would get rid of the redundant navigation links contained at the footer (the links at the header should be enough). I’m of the mindset that every link takes you to a different place, and for those visitors who treat links the same way, redundant links will probably only confuse them more, as well as unnecessarily adding to the site’s overall “busyness.”

After surfing around for a few minutes, it became clear that the best offerings you’ll find here are the extensive listing of coupon codes available for hosting services you sign up for, and the user reviews you can find for any hosting service you’re interested in. Due to the site’s longevity (they’ve been around since 2002), there are already many reviews available that you can sift through and read, even for hosting companies that haven’t enjoyed much exposure.

I would have like to have more control over how reviews and other listings were sorted, but this is a minor inconvenience, and there are enough tabs and choices to choose from to help you find the relevant information you’re searching for. They are constantly redesigning the site though, so it’s possible more sorting options will be offered later on.

There is also a guide section that has a surprisingly long list of helpful articles and tutorials to help you get started, and a blog that provides the latest news and coupon codes relating to the web hosting industry. If you’re a beginner who is just getting started looking for a hosting solution, their article, “9 Tips For Not Getting Screwed By Your Web Host” offers some of the best advice I’ve seen to avoid getting ripped off or hosed by a hosting provider.

Overall, I’m pleased to have discovered this site, and have bookmarked it for the future should the time come when I have to find a new hosting service myself (which hopefully won’t be any time soon).

I hate to get sucked into entering yet another blogging contest, especially when they are usually transparent efforts to build backlinks to their sites, but this one was too good to pass up.

David Airey is a graphic designer who, oddly enough, specializes in logo and graphic design, and is currently running a contest giving away $4,000 worth of prizes on his blog, which by the way covers the niche of… wait for it… logo design.

That should provide enough suitable context links to make Airey happy and get me into the contest, but just to boost my chances of winning, I’ll list most of the nifty prizes that’s being offered by his sponsors here, but only if y’all promise not to enter the contest too and thus diminish my chances of winning.

The gold (grand) prize offers a free… wait for it… logo design (from David Airey of course), a WordPress theme design by Nate Whitehill, a personal marketing and advertising plan from Dosh Dosh, one year of free hosting and blog setup from I Love Typography , and a signed copy of Blogging Tips by Lorelle Van Fossen, which I already have a copy of being the Lorelle groupie fan that I am.

One thing I really want out of that list of goodies is Nate’s offer of a theme design. That’s worth several hundred bones right there, and I could really use an expert to fix some of the more grating issues that’s been plaguing my theme since I started blogging. Rather than clean up my own mess though, I think it’d be nice to have somebody else do it for me. :hubahuba:

As for the other prizes, I thought I’d have a little fun here and list them to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

Logo designs by Roskell, whose name I think does ring a bell, site critiques by Randa Clay, who’ll tell you how to find your way, one hour SEO, linkbaits and promos, $60 worth of books, a problogger who’s not a crook…

Logo design, (not again!), blog optimizing, blog reviews and blogging tips, blogging that and blogging this, WordPress designing, what to do, what to do, never fear, help is here, Brian will take care of you!

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it!

Podcasting studio, from affiliate and marketing, Mom Gadget , free money, isn’t she a real honey, 3 USB sticks, help you get your hacking fix, Terenia in Edinburgh, they’ll thank me for this little blurb, blog reviews in Blog-Op, WordPress themes from Aaron Russell, Mareddy and her WordPress skills, Marketing Tools Review, hopefully provide a clue, blog writing consultations, all this and more frustrations, time to take a long vacation!

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it!

Coaching creative professionals, they’ll coach and coach and tell it all, business growth consulting, contract negotiations, a mediator and conflict coach, to keep you all from getting poached, always room for blog improvement, will all this even make a dent???

A banner day for banner ads, all on Blog Experiment, image ads, here and there, don’t have to pay a red cent, a guy who’s Smart Wealthy Rich, providing such a healthy kick, still won’t help me find my niche, but he’ll grant an advertising pitch!

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it!

Contest Blogger, Freelance Folder, getting bolder, and getting older, lifetime membership, with tips, tips, and more tips, WordPress SEO, just sit back and watch the show, but lookie here, there’s no one here, cuz I ran out of prizes, now I’ll gamble with a ramble, to the end of a blogging age, taking this, all the way, WHAT ELSE DO I HAVE TO SAY???

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it!

Yahoo, Google too, keyword stuffing, splogging too, stumblers, tumblers, and MySpace with its stalkers, Facebook and API, everything for you and I, search bots hits all the spots, del.icio.us, please stop the dots, Adsense, earning cents, Diggsters and their nonsense, carnivals, reddit geeks, podcasting, YouTube flings, text link ads, are they bad, hope it’s not another fad, show me where to find the door, CUZ I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it!

We didn’t start the fire, it was always burning since the world’s been turning!
We didn’t start the fire, no we didn’t light it but we tried to fight it……..

My latest link discoveries and finds for today:

• Web 2.0 Badges - Useful collection of stylish web 2.0 badges and a badge generator.
• Bust a Name - Easy way to find available domain names using keywords you like.
• Top 10 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life - Lifehacker - Useful suggestions for streamlining your PC habits.
• Online Music: 90+ Essential Music and Audio Websites - Yet ANOTHER crazy list by Mashable (they’re going to do this forever), this one for audiophiles.
• Podcasting Toolbox: 70+ Podcasting Tools and Resources - Yet another crazy list from Mashable, this one for podcasting.
• Your Guide to Never Feeling Tired Again - Nice long list of suggestions to revitalize your body and get rid of that perpetual feeling of tiredness.
• FolderShare.com - Sync files, sync folders, transfer files and more anywhere - Great way to sync your content if you have more than one computer. Ideal I think for synchronizing your My Documents, My Pictures, My Video and My Music folders.

I don’t know who first introduced the idea of using “10 tips to fill-in-the-blank” posts to draw traffic to your blog, but obviously it was authoritative enough that almost every blogger on the planet started taking that advice to heart. Now all you ever SEE are posts that tell you how to do everything from monetizing your blog, to bringing in tons of new readers in 10, 20, 25, 27, 33, 101 easy steps.

Not one to lose out on the fun, I decided to join in by contributing my own advice to successful blogging, but in just ONE easy step. Are you ready for it? Here it is:

Step One: Be Original.

I woke up late this morning, and not being in any hurry to get to work, I lazily surfed the Daily Blog Tips site, looking for advice and suggestions that I could apply to my own blog. I came across one post that linked to this article on how bloggers can use social networking sites like StumbleUpon to boost their traffic. So with nothing better to do 10 minutes before I had to head on to work, I submitted my blog post about women emulating men, yawned, then went to get dressed. My jaw unhinged and dropped when I went back to check my stats one last time.

The result of that seemingly innocuous submittal was the biggest traffic count I’ve ever seen since I started this blog. I generated over 50 visits in just under 15 minutes, and it was still going strong by the time I left for work.

I think I may have stumbled onto something here (uhhh, no pun intended). To be honest though, I wasn’t able to wrap my head around the appeal of social networking sites, partly because I couldn’t understand exactly how some of them worked. Sites like StumbleUpon, Flickr, YouTube and Last.FM (all of which I belong to) were easy enough to figure out, but places like Del.icio.us, Digg and Reddit made less sense to me. I think part of it might be because I wasn’t interested in what the most “digged” articles or highest ranked posts of the day happened to be. That perspective might change though as I give these sites a harder look. But one thing that will never, ever change is my utter disdain for places like MySpace, and other social networks that emulate them. The ilk you find at these online ghettos is something I just can’t abide by.

After thinking about what I wrote earlier about being set apart, I realized it isn’t people I don’t want to associate myself with: it’s ugly people. Not physically ugly mind you, but people who just don’t know how to be civilized. You see it all the time on MySpace and YouTube sites. People who drop f-bombs in comments for YouTube videos that show nothing more than a harmless clip of Big Bird singing on Sesame Street. People who feel the compelling need to take snapshots of their hairy buttingtocks and moon me on MySpace. Why? Why do they do this? Why must people always be so utterly depraved and tasteless? All I want is a little civility, to be able to enjoy surfing to a Peter Cetera’s MySpace page without seeing disgusting, lewd (and illegal) photos in the comments, or enjoy a YouTube video without some schmuck cluttering up the comments with mindless f-bombs. Crikey mate, get a grip you psychotic blokes.

Fortunately, though, I may have stumbled (again, no pun intended) onto a way to draw some of the better quality Internet surfers out there to my home on the web, all by making legitimate use of the social networking tools. I have to figure by doing so, eventually a few gems will end up at my doorstep and become regular readers, even if it means they had to ride a wave of sewage to get here.

Paradoxically, the kind of people I’d like visit to my blog would actually be those who are unfamiliar with Internet usage. I know it’s strange, but I think I’d enjoy the perspective of folks who rarely use computers (much less the Internet) more than those who basically spend their entire lives online (like I do). My hearing loss precludes me from being able to enjoy a healthy and active social life, so to compensate I do a lot of my talking through the keyboard. Still, I think it’d be nice to meet people (specifically a hot babe), who could pull me into the real world, and help me enjoy all that it has to offer there.

But until then, gotta keep on surfing.