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All the Content Management, Web Publishing and Enterprise 2.0 news you can handle. We think about content and dwell upon collaboration.

WordPress: Themes 100% GPL or Bust
by Chelsi Nakano
2 Jul 2009 at 5:32pm

WordPress (news, site) made a small announcement today regarding whether or not the GPL applies to themes. 

WordPress refers to the GPL as their Bill of Rights, but we like to think of it as a free software license. The GPL is a popular licence that grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition, and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved—even when the work is changed or added to.

Matt Mullenweg of WordPress writes, "We’ve always done our best to keep WordPress.org clean and only promote things that are completely compatible and legal with WordPress’s license." But just to be double sure, he recently consulted the Software Freedom Law Center for their opinion. Mullenweg’s results were summed up on the WordPress blog in one simple line:

"PHP in WordPress themes must be GPL, artwork and CSS may be but are not required."

Of course, cutting out CSS and JavaScript from WordPress would get kind of hairy and horrible, so the final verdict from the WordPress team is that they will continue to only promote and host things on WordPress.org that are 100% GPL or compatible.

In order to recognize and celebrate a few of the folks creating 100% GPL themes as well as providing support and other services around them, WordPress has a new page listing GPL commercially supported themes here.

Acquia Search Released Into Acquia Network
by Dee-Ann LeBlanc
2 Jul 2009 at 2:27pm

After allowing Acquia Search to simmer in over two hundred and fifty beta tester kitchens for a few months, Acquia (news, site) has taken the product and added it to its selection of hosted Acquia Network services.

Akamai, KIT Partner to Provide Video Across Online and Mobile Networks
by Chelsi Nakano
2 Jul 2009 at 2:10pm

Looks like a couple of companies are in cahoots to get video delivered straight to your mobile network, among other media.

That is, Akamai Technologies, Inc. and KIT digital, Inc. have combined forces in a strategic agreement. The agreement will allow KIT to package and resell Akamai solutions with its KIT VX Video Management Platform. Moreover, the agreement allows the companies to jointly market the KIT VX Video Management Platform to key Akamai enterprise customers.

Digital Reef, EntropySoft Partner for Enterprise CMS Connectivity
by David Roe
2 Jul 2009 at 1:35pm

Maybe it just seems like it, but there is sneaking suspicion that you can’t set foot outside the door at the moment without tripping over another buddying-up between Digital Reef (news, site) and a new friend.

This time it’s with EntropySoft (news, site) the enterprise content integration specialist. The purpose? To provide more out-of-the-box connectivity to more enterprise content management systems.

Turning 10: JustSystems Flagship Product XMetal
by Chelsi Nakano
2 Jul 2009 at 1:24pm

The cat’s outta the bag—we’ve got a birthday in the house!

Yesterday JustSystems (news, site), provider of XML and information management technologies, announced that their flagship product has been around for ten whole years.

XMetal is a powerful solution for structured content authoring and collaboration. It can be used as a stand-alone solution or as an integrated application with various content management and publishing systems including EMC’s Documentum, IBM’s FileNet and Microsoft’s SharePoint. Using industry standards including Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), XMetaL enables content creators to create, collaborate, and reuse information that can be repurposed into the languages and formats customers need.

With a little bit going on for everyone, XMetaL boasts user-friendliness and ease of use for the technically challenged as well as powerful features for tech fanboys and fangirls.

"XMetaL has been one of the industry’s top choices for the last ten years because customers can easily achieve a measurable return on investment as a result of their XMetaL implementation," said Aaron Deitcher, vice president of North America and EMEA for JustSystems.

Cut yourself a slice of cake, break out the bubbly, and learn more about XMetal here. 

Content First? A Relationship Between Words and Design
by Marisa Peacock
2 Jul 2009 at 10:33am

A recent post on Content Management Connection’s blog made a lot of sense. In it, the online community for technology practitioners, software companies and end users, discussed the need to be content first, design second.

Their point is that you wouldn’t buy a suit for a stranger without first having her trying it on, so why design websites around content that doesn’t exist yet. It’s an interesting concept, but not as simple as it sounds.

While it’s true that when projects are started and designers are tasked with putting together comps of possible designs, the actual content for a site is usually just a gleam in the project manager’s eye. Rarely do design projects start with the final copy. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Kapow Web Data Server 7 Smoothes Enterprise Data Flows
by David Roe
2 Jul 2009 at 10:23am

The announcement that Kapow Technologies (news, site) has just put the latest version of its Web Data Server — better known as its  Mashup Server — on general release should be of interest to anyone who is looking at their Web 2.0 apps for cost savings.

While a lot of companies claim a lot of things about their products, Kapow Technologies’ financial success and growth over the past two years has backed up those claims principally as a result of some very serious software.

With the v7.0 release Mashup Server boasts enhanced scalability and performance — and there are few other interesting bonuses as well.

Really Strategies Acquires SaaS-based DITA CMS Provider DocZone
by David Roe
2 Jul 2009 at 10:10am

Call it rubber-necking or whatever you want, but when one company buys another company in this business we want to know the details.

Such is the case with the announcement that Pennsylvania based Really Strategies (news, site) has just bought out DocZone (news, site), a Dutch-based SaaS XML content management provider under — you guessed it — undisclosed terms.

Joomla Extensions Directory Now Exclusively GPL
by Kristoffer Sandven
2 Jul 2009 at 8:25am

The Joomla Web CMS project — as many of you well know — is based on the GNU General Public License (GPL). This means, among other things, that the Joomla project generally has an ethos of encouraging collaboration, community and free software.

The Joomla team confirmed in 2007 that both Joomla v1.0 and v1.5 were released under the GPL license. Now, the Joomla folks have taken things one step further.

Nuxeo Takes Enterprise Doc Management to the Cloud
by Irina Guseva
2 Jul 2009 at 6:00am

Let’s take another trip to the cloud, shall we? Yes, the adage may be old: to cloud or not to cloud? The open source Enterprise CMS vendor Nuxeo (news, site) solved this poetic dilemma and took its document management product to the cloud.

Get Started Quickly With eZ Publish New Installer
by Geoff Spick
2 Jul 2009 at 5:00am

Installing everything needed for a CMS can be quite daunting, so it comes as welcome news that eZ (news, site) has developed an all-in-one installer for those just starting out or switching in the open source CMS world.

TeamViewer Adds More Languages, Connects More People
by Chelsi Nakano
1 Jul 2009 at 3:53pm

Expansion, expansion, expansion. There are tons of ways companies can achieve it, but TeamViewer’s most recent method of choice is of the multilingual variety.

The desktop sharing software, which was already available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, and Danish, has added six new languages to the family: Turkish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish and Japanese.

Zoho Projects 2.0 Released, Adds Twitter-like Micro Messaging
by Chelsi Nakano
1 Jul 2009 at 3:23pm

We saw productivity suite provider, Zoho (news, site), attempt to get social with it earlier this year when they released their multi-platform chat program. And then again when they released embeddable gadgets for their applications.

So what makes this time different? Well, instead of a simple gadget or two, Zoho’s kicking out Zoho Projects 2.0. The latest version of their online project management and team collaboration solution is backed by a host of social features that Zoho promises will change how teams get work done. 

Smarter Spell Check, Hyphenation Tools from WoodWing to Publishers
by Geoff Spick
1 Jul 2009 at 2:30pm

WoodWing (news, site) released two updated versions of its language-improving Smart Speller and Smart Hyphen plug-ins for Adobe’s Creative Suite 4.

The Social Media Minute (1-July-2009)
by Jason Harris
1 Jul 2009 at 2:00pm

Social media moves so fast, it’s hard to keep up. Here are the week’s top stories in scan-friendly format:

FriendFeed Offers Up File Sharing New Zealand Mobile Facebook up 700% in Last Five Months Flickr Finally Embraces Twitter, Challenges TwitPic Small Brands Can Have Facebook Vanity URLs Also

Web Hosting Talk News
Web hosting industry discussion and news

Hosting.com, Web Hosting Company, to Expand High-Density Data Center
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
2 Jul 2009 at 9:21am
Managed hosting and colocation solutions provider, Hosting.com, is expanding by opening a 30,000 square foot datacenter and 13,000 square foot corporate complex in the Denver metro area in late August.
Web Hosting Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Platform, Astro, at Layered Tech
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
2 Jul 2009 at 8:58am
Provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, Layered Technologies, Inc., has made Microsoft Windows Server 2008 available for rapid server deployments via Astro, the company's proprietary automated web hosting platform.
Sun Microsystems, Web Hosting Provider, Upgrades Developer Community, NetBeans
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
2 Jul 2009 at 8:47am
The NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 6.7 has been released by web hosting provider, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and the NetBeans developer community.
Hosted Cloud Services with Multi-Tenancy, Released by Gear6
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
2 Jul 2009 at 8:35am
The next version of Gear6 Web Cache, specifically targeting the needs of cloud providers, has been released by provider of scalable Memcached solutions, Gear6.
Web Hosting Firm, Lunarpages, Selects CoreLink Data Centers
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
1 Jul 2009 at 9:20am
Tier 3 provider of colocation and disaster recovery solutions, CoreLink Data Centers, has been chosen by provider of web hosting services, Lunarpages, as its datacenter provider in Las Vegas.
Network Solutions Web Hosting Firm, Debuts July 4th Promotion
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
1 Jul 2009 at 9:03am
Web hosting provider, domain name registration and services firm, Network Solutions, recently announced, in celebration of Independence Day, that it will offer .US names at a discounted price.
Hosting SIP Plans Power E-Business, from Nexcess Magento
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
1 Jul 2009 at 8:55am
Web hosting service provider and Magento hosting solutions company, NEXCESS.NET has indicated that since the launch of its new Magento SIP hosting plans, which debuted in May, they have become their fastest-selling hosting plan. Chris Wells, CEO of Nexcess remarked, ''We've been really gratified with the feedback. We were sure we'd put together a winning package geared specifically towards clients who were interested in running Magento-based online stores and were happy to see that we'd hit the mark. The popularity of the plans has necessitated adding new SIP servers faster than anticipated. We actually had to scramble a bit at first to keep up with the demand - but we keep plenty of extra hardware at our data center both for SIPs and all our other hosting plans, so there were no fulfillment problems.'' Mr. Wells added, ''Magento is a complex piece of software, and we've put a lot of effort into figuring out how to make it run optimally. A lot of our competitors try to run Magento as if it were just another piece of web software. It clearly needs a specialized environment to provide the performance level e-commerce sites require. Customers can really tell a difference when they move to a SIP from a generic one-size-fits-all solution.'' The Magento SIP (Secure Isolated Platform) plans consist of carefully chosen software and hardware which have been extensively tested and optimized to run the Magento e-commerce software as securely and efficiently as possible. The plans have proved popular because they include everything needed to get a Magento web store up and running smoothly, according to Wells.
Hosted Data Center Provider, Digital Realty Trust, Welcomes Capgemini
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
1 Jul 2009 at 8:39am
Wholesale datacentre provider, Digital Realty Trust, Inc., has completed a Turn-Key Datacentre lease agreement with consulting, technology and outsourcing services firm, Capgemini.
Web Host Boot Camp Participants, Offered Discount, by Kayako
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
30 Jun 2009 at 9:18am
Kayako, along with Web Host Boot Camp, is offering a special sales promotion for hundreds of its conference attendees on Kayako's award-winning customer service software solutions. Jamie Edwards, operations manager at Kayako stated, ''Kayako has a long established presence in the web hosting and internet service provider community, supplying customer service and live engagement software solutions to providers of all kinds and sizes. We are very excited to be sponsoring the Web Host Boot Camp 2009 virtual conference, a first of its kind for this industry.''
Dedicated Server Hosting Company, ServerPronto, Joins Twitter
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
30 Jun 2009 at 9:01am
Dedicated server provider, ServerPronto, has joined the popular social networking platform, Twitter, a free microblogging site incorporated in 2007, which has fast become one of the most popular ways for companies to interact with customers and learn more about their clientele's needs.
Reseller Agreement for Integrated Data Systems SA, Ensim Web Hosting Software
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
30 Jun 2009 at 8:50am
Provider of user provisioning and access control software, Ensim Corporation, has entered into a reseller agreement with Integrated Data Systems SA (IDSA), a company specialized in the design, implementation and maintenance of IT networks.
Hosted Green Data Center EvoSwitch, Chosen as Internet HUB for Wikimedia Europe
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
30 Jun 2009 at 8:39am
Carrier-neutral data center in Amsterdam that operates fully CO2-neutral, EvoSwitch, has entered into a contract operator and owner of Wikipedia, with The Wikimedia Foundation.
BTR Associates Leverages Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to Deploy Hosted Virt...
by Gold1
26 Jun 2009 at 1:26pm
Parallels Extends Market Leadership with Leading Virtualization Technology HERNDON, Va., June 25, 2009 - Virtualization and automation leader Parallels, today announced that BTR Associates has selected Parallels Virtuozzo Containers to deploy and manage their hosted virtual desktop offerings. Parallels’ virtualization technology helps hosting and cloud services providers maximize [...]
Rackspace Hosting Provider, Teams with Denim Group
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
25 Jun 2009 at 9:32am
Hosting services provider, Rackspace, has entered into an agreement with IT consultancy that develops secure software and helps organizations assess and mitigate risks with their existing software, the Denim Group.
Web Hosting Provider, AptHost, Releases Web 2.0 Design Services
by Reseller Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers, WebHost News
25 Jun 2009 at 9:18am
Web hosting provider of of shared, reseller, VPS and dedicated hosting services, AptHost Communications USA Inc., has launched its new website. From its inception in 2001, AptHost has been providing the web hosting market with quality hosting services to meet the needs of individuals and small businesses. In early 2006, AptHost found its niche in the social media market by providing web hosting services to individuals with social media and video sharing related websites.
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42U Offers Data Center Energy Savings Calculator
2 Jul 2009 at 3:56pm
July 2, 2009 -- Data center efficiency solutions provider 42U announced on Thursday it has launched a free, interactive Data Center Energy Savings Calculator to help data center managers quantify the energy, cost, and CO2 savings possible through efficiency efforts.
3FN Shutdown Costs Adult Affiliate Operator $5K a Day
2 Jul 2009 at 3:54pm
July 2, 2009 -- After the US Federal Trade Commission effectively pulled the plug on web host 3FN in early June for alleged distributor of spam, child pornography, and other illegal content, a mid-size Spanish pornography company that operates affiliate programs said the shutdown has cost its legitimate business $5,000 a day.
Data Center Pulse Reaches 1,000 Members
2 Jul 2009 at 2:28pm
July 2, 2009 -- Non-profit data center organization Data Center Pulse announced on Thursday it has enrolled its 1,000th member.
Web Host Value Reseller Acquires LogicSupport
2 Jul 2009 at 1:49pm
July 2, 2009 -- Little more than a week following its acquisition of Javascript Zoom, private-label reseller web hosting services provider Value Reseller has added another key piece to its reseller hosting offering by buying LogicSupport, which provides white-label, outsourced technical support, administration and management services exclusively for web hosts.
NTT America Names Two Executives
2 Jul 2009 at 12:06pm
July 2, 2009 -- Telecommunications provider NTT America announced on Thursday it has appointed Michael Wheeler the company's vice president of the global IP network business unit.
Datapipe Tops Netcraft's June Hosting Site Uptime List
2 Jul 2009 at 11:49am
July 2, 2009 -- Responding to each and every request from Netcraft's performance collector without fail for the entire month, managed services provider DataPipe had the most reliable hosting company site in the Internet security and analytics provider's monthly survey.
Web Host Fasthosts Names New CEO
2 Jul 2009 at 10:47am
July 2, 2009 -- UK web hosting provider Fasthosts Internet announced on Wednesday it has named Andy Burton the company's new CEO of Fasthosts Internet, as well as of the company's subsidiary in the US.
GoDaddy.com Launches New SEO Tool
2 Jul 2009 at 10:25am
July 2, 2009 -- Giving its customers more of a chance to complete with the more than 200 million websites in existence, domain registrar web host Go Daddy has released "Search Engine Visibility," a new search engine optimization tool that walks users through a step-by-step process to make their website search engine friendly, not only making a search engine more likely to index the entire site, but also to help the website rise in search engine rankings.
NSA Plans 1M Square-Foot Utah Data Center
2 Jul 2009 at 9:55am
July 2, 2009 -- The National Security Agency has revealed plans to build a 1-million-square-foot data center at Fort Williams in Utah, which borders Salt Lake and Tooele counties, according to a report by the Salt Lake Tribune.
Hosting.com Plans 30k Square-Foot Denver Data Center
2 Jul 2009 at 9:25am
July 2, 2009 -- Managed hosting and colocation solutions provider Hosting.com plans to open a a 13,000 square foot corporate office complex and a 30,000 square foot data center in the Denver metro area by late August, providing multiple layers of connectivity, redundancy, and security.

Alledia.com
The most popular Joomla blog with advice that helps you rank Joomla! sites high in search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

British Telecom Rolling Out Joomla To Customers
by Steve Burge
28 Jun 2009 at 10:31am

We had a student at our Cambridge class who put me on this trail of this ... apparently British Telecom are rolling out Joomla for nearly all of their customers' websites. With the exception of e-commerce,it seems to be their default system for building customer sites. For those of you not familiar with BT, it is far and away the biggest telecom company in the U.K.

Read more...

Joomla Classes in the U.K.: London and Cambridge
by Steve Burge
15 Jun 2009 at 5:45pm

It is that time of the year again ... I'm headed back the U.K. for a couple of weeks.

Mainly the trip will be family-orientated as I've sisters who are graduating, getting married and having babies. There's a lot to catch up on!

However, it's a rare vacation nowadays that doesn't involve Joomla in some way. So we're holding two Joomla training classes, one in Cambridge on June 25th and another in London on July 1st.

Both classes will be identical to the ones we run in the U.S. with the same materials, resources, price and even the same bad wisecracks. I may just have to edit the Powerpoints a little to replace somes "z"s with "s"s and find some Essex jokes to replace the Redneck ones.

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SEO Template Presentation from Joomla Day Netherlands
by Steve Burge
15 Jun 2009 at 11:08am

Joomla Day Netherlands took place this weekend and by all accounts it was a great success.

There was the official release for Joomla's new Resources Directory, a presentation with useful security tips by Brian Teeman, and a really good overview of how to create a Joomla SEO-optimized template:

Rene Kreijveld from Webcreatives.nl does a great job of explaining how to create a basic source-ordered template. "Source-ordered" essentially means putting the unique, original text on a page higher up in the code, so that search engines don't have to wade through lines and lines of repetitive code before reaching tha text. I'd recommend viewing the slides in full-screen as some of the code displayed is small (click the icon on the bottom, second from the right):

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What's Your Favorite Joomla Analogy?
by Steve Burge
10 Jun 2009 at 3:42pm

People who teach Joomla know they feeling ... things have been going well, but suddenly there's a blank look. The student's stuck on one point. You've tried a few ways to explain it, but they're not getting the big picture. You rack your brain and start, "well, Joomla's just like a ... " and you try to dig out a comparison.

Here are my top five favorite analogies to help people grasp Joomla's key concepts. Please feel free to post your own in the comments.

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What's Happening With Joomla?
by Steve Burge
8 Jun 2009 at 12:49am

Listen.. people be askin me all the time,
"Yo Mos, what's gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?"
(Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin?)
I tell em, "You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop?
Whatever's happening with us"
If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out
If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright
People talk about Hip-Hop like it's some giant livin in the hillside
comin down to visit the townspeople."

Lyrics from Fear Not of Man by Mos Def

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Are Smart Companies Now Supporting Several CMS Platforms?
by Steve Burge
5 Jun 2009 at 1:33pm

I'm always on the lookout for business trends in our industry and I've spotted a significant new one in recent months. Increasingly CMS companies are supporting different platforms. The choice for each company is different, but the trend seems real:

Examples of Joomla Companies Supporting Other Platforms
Rockettheme: Joomla and phpBB3 Joomlart: Joomla and Magento JoomlaJunkie: Working on iTemplater.com and building for Joomla, Drupal and Magento JoomlaPraise: Working on CMSMarket.com
CMSExpo: Started with Joomla and expanded to all kinds of Open Source CMS

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Joomla Classes in Nashville and Charlotte
by Steve Burge
4 Jun 2009 at 2:17pm

Alledia is based down in the south of the United States in Atlanta. We started our Joomla training classes here and by the end of June we'll have run almost a dozen Atlanta classes.

Its time to spread the Joomla gospel (the Jospel?) a little further around the south so early next week we're headed to Charlotte, North Carolina and the Music City of Nashville, Tennessee. We'll be in Charlotte on Monday 8, and Nashville on Tuesday 9.

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Thoughts From Two Weeks Away
by Steve Burge
4 Jun 2009 at 12:42pm

In the last two weeks I've been in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Washington, New York and even Alaska. Just one more short trip to Charlotte and Nashville left.

The trip taught me something. For two weeks I kept in touch via email and cellphone but had no time for three things I'd been using every day. Two of them I really missed, the other ... not so much.

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Leadership is Now The Strongest Marketing Strategy
by Steve Burge
8 May 2009 at 8:18pm

One of the hardest things to explain to people when we're discussing SEO nowadays is that its not about the h1 tags, nofollow links and managing Page Rank. Aaron Wood summed this up well by saying that for the modern marketer, PR should stand for "personal relationships" rather than "Page Rank". Even more accurate is this quote from Seth Godin

"Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set. Today, of course, yelling doesn't work so well.

What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another.

It's enough if the tribe you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you. It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership you provide makes a difference." 

We can all think of companies that have tried to enter our markets by putting down rivals. The hot-head loses opportunities for partnerships, for links, for publicity. I've seen hate-bait (deliberately posting a blog that makes people angry in order to get attention) fall away as people see it for what it is.

How do you know if you're leading and being a successful modern SEO? If you're being copied. Its so easy to replicate ideas nowadays that the question isn't if someone will copy your business model, but when. Imitation is a form of flattery. The time to worry is when no-one is copying you ... if no-one thinks you're worth following.

Sponsored Review of WebHostingReport.com
by Steve Burge
8 May 2009 at 7:37pm

This is an interesting review request that popped up in our inbox. WebHostingReport.com is a good domain name but a somewhat thin affiliate site. It aims to rank for hosting, blog hosting, cheap web hosting and other keyword terms.

The site doesn't have much going for it in terms of interest, but its a nice example of targeted lead generation. To me it looks like more a more sophisticated version of the Siteground promotional sites we discussed last year.

A short list of five hosts, with one favored host almost always on top Lots of interlinking for keywords A small collection of generic articles on the topic These tactics work, particularly with a valuable .com domain name. The site ranks very well for its exact matches such as "web hosting report" and "web hosting reports".