To help you, as a developer, find the right hosting service for your passion(s), we searched for some of the most diverse and specialized providers among the bunch here at WHDb. What we came up with may surprise you, as some of the names are obscure, the companies may be small, and the prices are beyond belief as they’re so low. Of course, if you want to pull the dedicated server option, the prices listed below won’t hold water.

The sites below are arranged from most to least expensive. This pricing methodology does not dictate the quality or value of any of the Web hosts listed below.

1. LayeredTechnologies: This company offers both Virtual and Dedicated infrastructures, with the ability for developers to experiment and experience spikes in traffic with little to no downtime, thanks to a grid hosting service. Their top-tier data centers are the cornerstones of their worldwide hosting capabilities, with unparalleled security, network availability, capacity, processing power, and operations management are all at your command. LayeredTech’s scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites (such as N-Tara, Tom Green, NeXplore, Sparq Training, and WordPress) and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more. With LayeredTechnologies, it’s a fair “ask and you probably will receive” environment. A current WHDB coupon provides developers with a dedicated server at $149.00 per month.
2. AISO: Here’s a fairly mainstream Web host provider that offers Linux, Windows and FreeBSD on co-located, dedicated, green and reseller server options. AISO (Affordable Internet Services Online, Inc.) offers ASP, CGI, ColdFusion, Drupal, Perl, PHP, SSI and Zend, and offer Access, MySQL and SQL database support depending upon your server option. AISO also provides backup servers and power supplies and they run redundant monitoring servers that monitor each piece of equipment in the network. Their support is 24/7 through a variety of contact options. They also monitor server resources, so users can become more aware of their impact on the environment. So, note that if you plan to ramp your usage up ( such as CPU time, memory usage, and network resources), you may pay for an upgrade to a dedicated server option. Hosting programs can be purchased on a monthly, quarterly, semi-yearly or yearly billing cycle, and they start at $9.95 per month.
3. NetFirms: This company offers Web hosting in a new integrated Windows/Linux platform known as Netfirms MultiPlatform. So, developers can rest assured that – no matter which language or scripting option they choose to develop apps – NetFirms can provide the format. They also supply 24/7 support. ASP, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails and SSI are served up on clustered, dedicated, shared or secure SSL servers. Additionally, Netfirms has started a new “green” program called “Netfirms Green.” This philosophy includes reduction in every aspect of the business. A current low rate on their hosting services is $8.95 per month, billed in a one- or two-year plan (with a 30-day money-back guarantee).
4. Apollo Hosting: Apollo’s “Total Solutions Hosting” plan provides you with all the tools any developer would need to create a powerful presence on the Internet. Look for a choice among Linux, Windows and Unix servers, along with ASP, CGI, ColdFusion, Perl, PHP, Ruby on Rails, SSI, WAP, WSDL, MySQL and SQL on hosting plans that include reseller, shared and SSL-secure servers. Four Tier 1 Backbone connections & custom-built servers designed for a 24×7 web serving environment ensure a fast, reliable 99.9% server uptime. Plus, this small company offers 24/7 support. They do not outsource, and they are proud members of the Better Business Bureau Online and have strategic alliances with industry leaders such as Microsoft, RedHat Linux, MIVA Small Business, SWSoft, Yahoo Search Marketing, Cisco & Genuity. Current hosting plans begin at $6.96 per month.
5. Crucial Paradigm: This host is well worth the time to consider its offerings. All accounts are hosted on servers running RedHat Linux or FreeBSD and installed with a minimum of 1024MB of ram and 7200 RPM drives. Crucial Paradigm’s newest servers feature Dual Opteron 64Bit processors and Dual Xeon 2.8Ghz processors with 73GB 10K RPM Ultra 320 SCSI drives and up to 4GB of RAM. Plus, they provide WAP developers with something to sing about, along with Apache, CGI, Drupal, Perl, PHP, Ruby on Rails, SSI, WML Script and Zend. Their hosting solutions range from basic Web hosting to reseller hosting, virtual dedicated servers, dedicated servers, and “High Traffic Clusters.” Current hosting prices begin at $5.95 per month.
6. Go Daddy: While Go Daddy has become a mainstream host for many users, many hardcore developers have become addicted to the possibilities offered by Go Daddy’s range of developmental opportunities. Some developers have gone so far as to develop get-arounds for some of Go Daddy’s limitations. Why Go Daddy? Because they offer everything from AJAX and ASP to Python and Ruby on Rails. Additionally, the developer can look at dedicated hosting rather than shared options if that developer wants some territory to experiment further. The plus for all Go Daddy clients is that this host provider is inexpensive and they offer features like a 99.9% network uptime commitment, 24/7 support, and free access to their exclusive Go Daddy Hosting Connection (their hottest hosting applications and utilities). Current lowest hosting rate is $4.99 per month.
7. HostGator: Host Gator provides shared, reseller and dedicated hosting solutions, and it is one of the world’s top ten largest web hosting companies with more than 1,300,000 hosted domains. Their services are designed for both beginners and professionals. For the pros, HostGator offers CGI, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, SSI, cron jobs, SSH, MySQL and SSL secure servers. Additionally, they use Linux, so Open Source fanatics can bask in the glory as they module and widget their way to freedom. Their reseller plans are attractive, even for developers, as HostGator allows resellers to keep 100% of the money collected. Every Web hosting plan at HostGator.com comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 support. Current low hosting rate is $4.95 per month.
8. MediaCatch: For those developers who want additional security and control not available from shared hosting, MediaCatch offers fully customized dedicated servers that are developed based on customers’ specific requirements. For similar power and control at a much lower cost, MediaCatch provides Virtual Private Servers (VPS) with root access, two dedicated IP addresses, and the ability to resell. They provide access to ASP, CGI, ColdFusion, Drupal, Perl, PHP, Ruby on Rails, SSI on Windows and Linux servers and a 99% uptime guarantee with fast connections and monthly backups. Support is 24/7 and a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee for all shared, reseller, and VPS plans. Current lowest cost on hosting is $3.95 (see coupon) or $39.95 for VPS.
9. Hagen Hosting: If you want a secure environment to build AJAX apps, then take a look a Hagen Hosting. Outside of AJAX, they offer CGI, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, XML, SSI and much more on secure SSL Linux dedicated servers. Hagen offers these services and a support-driven atmosphere through a public knowledge base which contains online technical information for common Web hosting support questions in addition to an online FAQ for answering basic questions on services offered. Customers may also submit technical support and other questions through the Personal Control Panel. It’s a community atmosphere here, something that many developers can appreciate. Basic hosting starts at $3.95 per month.
10. M6.net: This one is for all you SOAP developers out there. But, don’t think that this is all that M6.net offers. You can find applications for ADO, AJAX, ASP, Perl, PHP, Python, SSI, VBScript, WAP, WML Script, WSDL, Zend. Access, MySQL and SQL on Windows Web hosting in four available plans plus a reseller package. Customers can mix and match any one or more of M6.net’s technologies, languages and scripts to their own specifications. M6 offers 24/7 phone support, toll-free in the United States, and email support also is available. The Network is Cisco Certified and servers are monitored 24/7/365. Current low price for a hosting plan with M6.net is $3.75 per month (save 20% with our coupon on this offer).

But, it seems that more Web hosting services are beginning to offer VoIP services and products as well. While some host providers might be able to explain their products and why they work, others may not. Still others may offer everything you need — all, of course, except the VoIP.

What do you need for a great VoIP service provider? Basically, the client who wants a dynamic VoIP support system will look for IP multimedia communications services with high-fidelity voice quality and near-zero latency. These objectives can be accomplished with a service that provides an all-optical network and multiple redundancies. And, you’ll need a VoIP system, if your Web host doesn’t provide the setup. You can hook up an inexpensive microphone to your computer or connect a phone directly to a VoIP telephone adapter (ATA). Or you can use a SIP Phone. Each SIP phone is a network endpoint, and voice is routed through its IP address. SIP phones also allow full use of advanced features like voice mail to e-mail and auto attendant.

With that said, we’ve compiled this handy list of ten Web hosts that provide a friendly environment for VoIP applications. This VoIP Web host list is compiled by price, from most to least expensive. This methodology does not mean that we value one host over another, either by price or by service.

1. HostGator.com: HostGator.com is providing customers with a new VoIP service this fall. VOIPo is a residential service that is hooked to HostGator.com’s servers through a adapter that connects to your router. When you sign up for this service, you’ll receive this adapter, which allows you to use your regular telephones as normal. This is a Vonage-like service, and it requires an activation fee, and a USF surcharge and an E911 Recovery Fee will be billed with service. The new service, which is in beta, provides plenty of options. Tentative pricing for one month’s service is $21.95, but you can go lower if you pay a yearly fee of $199.00.
2. Sterling Communications: Sterling Communications has become a full-service Internet Service Provider (ISP) for corporations, small businesses and residences. Not only do they provide complete and virtual Web hosting services for NT, Unix, ASP.Net, Cold Fusion, SQL, MySQL, FrontPage and PHP, they also provide design solutions for LAN, WAN, MAN, wireless and VPN applications. Founded in 1997, Sterling’s revenue has grown consistently, with a 77% gain during the last three years. Their VoIP plan is called Sterling Voice, and their Web hosting includes managed and unmanaged co-located hosting and virtual hosting. You’ll need to contact the company for prices.
3. AccessOne: AccessOne’s hosting plan offers power backups, redundant hard drives, off- and on-site server monitoring 24×7, and redundant Internet backbone connectivity. Their theory is that, by packaging Web hosting together with AccessOne’s VoIP or DSL products, you can enjoy additional savings every month. When you visit their site, you’ll see that Web hosting is a minor part of this company’s total business, and that their products focus on business VoIP. But, their Web hosting is priced to meet individual standards as well. Currently, their basic monthly Web hosting package is $19.95 per month.
4. HostOnFiber: Utilize your VoIP on the same fiber optic technology that major corporations use. Their backbone is served using Gigabit Ethernet, as well as SONET technologies to enhance the speed and reliability of our hosted sites. Additionally, the HostOnFiber network was built with security and stability in mind. Starting with the operating systems, they run various flavors of Unix which have reputations of being stable and secure. Plus, they have engineers maintaining their network around the clock and a flexible disk use policy. Located in Canada, HostOnFiber provides users with email and phone support. You can start with them today at $14.95 per month and no setup fee.
5. Verio: As a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications, the world’s largest telecommunications company, Verio can offer screaming-fast communications through their hosting services. They tap into a highly advanced Tier-1 global Internet Protocol (IP) network that has been exclusively designed to provide their customers with the world’s best IP data transport. Verio’s attention to full redundancy across the board is impressive as well. In addition to their connectivity, their data center provides power backup via battery-powered UPS as well as diesel generators and great support. Through our coupons, you can save two months on a full year contract at $11.95 per month.
6. The Host Group: This company has been around since 1998, serving small- and medium-sized businesses that want to host a Web site on an OC-48 fiber optic network. According to The Host Group, the majority of their clients come to them from other providers due to the lack of technical and customer support. So, you can bet that you’ll receive what you’ve been missing at other host providers. Plus, you’ll find complete monitoring and correction of essential services such as ports and resources. They use proprietary monitoring software with full support of professional systems administrators and support personnel. Look for a great price at $9.95 per month.
7. StartLogic: StartLogic’s 99.9% uptime guarantee is backed by a data center that boasts redundant fiber optic connections to Qwest, ELI, Cox, and major tier-1 backbone providers such as Broadwing, Global Crossing, and UUNET. They offer fully redundant power and UPS backup systems, power conditioning systems, and backup generators. Their network infrastructure is comprised of a pooled server environment, which provides virtually any server on their network with the ability to access Web site files when a request occurs. This is one ideal hosting environment where you can activate your VoIP service. A current coupon gives users a free domain and setup at $6.50 per month.
8. Velcom: If you want mission critical and redundant networks that run on secure fiber optic networks, then this hosting provider might be what you need for your VoIP setup. The Velcom network was designed from the ground up to handle unpredictable spikes in traffic, and with multiple 1000mbps transit connections and direct Ethernet/fiber peering arrangements, they claim no single point of failure anywhere within the Velcom network. Each backplane is never utilized more than 40% to allow for unexpected bursting without performance loss. In fact, Velcom guarantees 99.9% uptime. Start your VoIP experience with free setup through our coupons, or $4.95 per month hosting.
9. Dot5Hosting: Home and commercial users can tap a VoIP system into Dot5Hosting, as this company’s servers are linked to the Internet via fiber-optic connections that span more than seven diverse backbones and well-known providers such as Congent, So net and Time Warner. Their systems include a high power UPS generator electrical backup, closed circuit monitoring and redundant air-conditioning systems. But that’s not the only redundancy they boast – they utilize Dell and IBM servers which run Dual Intel Xeon processors with 2GB of DDR-RAM and SCSI hard drives with RAID-1 redundancy. Current packages start at $3.95 per month.
10. 3FN.net: 3FN stands for Triple Fiber Networks, a privately owned company that works fully independently. offers a variety of dedicated servers, with the top model being a Opteron(tm) Processor 1214 2.2 GHz with 4Gb Error-Correcting Code RAM, a 2x 400Gb GB SATA II hard drive and a 50Mbit traffic allowance, and their transit is provided via AboveNET, the leading provider of the metro fiber networks with more than 950 optically-enabled buildings in 12 U.S. markets. Although 3FN.net focuses on dedicated servers, users can find a niche for reliable hosting for VoIP service through discounted monthly hosting. Begin with our VoIP coupons for $.95 per month, and you’ll have the least expensive fiber optic hosting around.

But, anyone who harbors a modicum of Web savvy knows that shuttering a front door to a Web site is a futile effort, as there are other ways to keep a site ‘live.’ In the Wikileaks.org case, users could continue to gain access to the site through its Internet Protocol (IP) address and through mirror sites registered in other countries that the Wikileaks.org organizers created for such a circumstance. Those domain names were not affected by the injunction. Additionally, David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard Law School, stated that Judge White’s order to disable the entire site was not constitutional, and that “there is no justification under the First Amendment for shutting down an entire Web site.”

The First Amendment, in regards to free speech, has been altered in some situations regarding anonymous speech, pornography, sedition, hate speech, obscenity, libel, slander, and private action, etc. So, although Ardia proclaims no justification in shutting down a site, it is a wise Web master/owner/host who is familiar with free speech court rulings or who has access to an attorney familiar with these matters. Otherwise, in the case of some hate or pornographic sites for instance, the web master may bounce around from host to host if someone seeks to shut your site down.

With that said, most Web host providers may set rules for hosting a site on their servers. If you violate those terms of service (TOS) or any Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), that Web host has every right to shut your site down (or remove a portion of that site) and refuse service. But, what makes the Web so difficult to silence — outside the fact that it is almost impossible shut down a site — is the fact that the Web is not print. A Web site is inclusive, interactive, and it invites people to assemble. These actions, also, are part of the First Amendment rights. For this reason, the case for free speech on Web sites is not guaranteed, as many rules are unclear. So, if you want to voice an opinion on or through a Web site, consider Web sites where the owners are unwilling to play the role of arbiter (such as the group-messaging service Twitter), or Web hosts who welcome Web sites that promote free speech exercises.

Due to rules set in place by the government of the United States of America, American Web host providers cannot host clients from the following countries: Burma, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, or Zimbabwe. But, this list may change as relationships between the U.S. and any one of these countries change.

As a side note, we searched Whois for hosts to Web sites that claimed free speech or to sites that were one of at least 4,000 hate sites on the Internet. We figured that if a hosting provider would allow free speech or hate sites on a network, then they may have some modicum of free speech allowance configured into their TOS or AUP. To that end, we’ve chosen ten free speech Web hosts (not including the sites listed on our other free speech article), listed them below, and arranged them in order from most to least expensive. This methodology does not indicate that we approve of one Web host provider over another.

1. The Planet: The Planet makes no claim to free speech allowances, but we discovered a hate site on their network in addition to a free speech advocate site. To that end, The Planet’s AUP does state that it reserves the right to comply with any investigation without notice to a user. The Planet also reserves the right to disclose information relating to users and their use of The Planet services, “if such information is disclosed in connection with an investigation or in order to prevent the death of or bodily harm to any individual, as determined by The Planet in its sole discretion.” The Planet’s services range from dedicated servers to enterprise-class managed hosting. They serve more than 22,000 customers from six SAS 70 Type II certified data centers. Starting prices for dedicated hosting can begin at bargain-basement prices of $50.00 per server.
2. Versaweb.net: Versaweb will cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected criminal or civil wrongdoing, they do not accept child pornography, unsolicited commercial email / SPAM services or any other scripts and programs designed for potential misuse or abuse of network services. With that said, Versaweb maintains a very strong track record for protecting First Amendment rights and privacy rights for their customers. They offer reseller options, co-location services, dedicated servers and VPS. The Virtual Private Servers currently start at $24.95 per month.
3. ZoneEdit: ZoneEdit hosts reliable DNS servers, domain registration, e-mail servers for email forwarding, and web servers for URL forwarding and parked domains. ZoneEdit provides a convenient single-location, integrated, web-based domain manager for configuring all of the services provided. You cannot spam or conduct illegal business while using ZoneEdit’s services, but they will host hate sites. According to a 2004 article, when the ZoneEdit owner was questioned as to why he hosted hate sites, he stated that, “They will just host in another country, my feeling is I’d rather have sites hosted here in the U.S. where we can aid in any investigations that may occur.” This hosting service is free — first 5 domains added with under 200MB usage each, and then begins at $10.95 per month after that free usage has expired.
4. Hosting Zoom: Hosting Zoom provides clustered solutions with real-time data replication and redundant environment. While this environment is ideal for traffic spikes and heavy volume, Hosting View does not consider sexually explicit materials, spam and a long list of prohibitions that pertain mainly to hate speech. But, a search for this site and “free speech” showed that people have been able to work with Hosting Zoom to host sites that some might consider ‘on the line.’ In other words, Hosting Zoom doesn’t jump to conclusions, but will give users benefit of the doubt when it comes to free speech, especially if the user can cite materials and/or prove a claim. Their service currently charges a $19.95 set up fee and hosting that starts at $9.95 per month.
5. Dreamhost: Sometimes a Web hosting provider’s TOS won’t be specific about what they will host — but, information about what they won’t host can help define parameters. Dreamhost won’t host sites that contain material in violation of any “country, federal, state or local regulation.” In other words, if you live in France and you post Nazi materials on a Dreamhost site, you may be in trouble. France prohibits use of those materials on their Web sites, and Dreamhost’s willingness to abide by other country’s laws sidesteps the problems that Yahoo! encountered in 2000. Also, you cannot post child pornography, any infringement on copyrighted materials, or any content that advocates, sells or in any way makes available tools or methods to send unsolicited e-mail or usenet postings (spam). But, a search for free speech and Dreamhost reveals that some Pagan users and book authors are happy with Dreamhost’s willingness to host materials that have been banned on other hosting services. Additionally, we found one hate site hosted here. Services with Dreamhost start at $5.95 per month.
6. Host QT: According to this site’s TOS, the user is solely responsible for the content of his or her messages. Using the HostQT.com Service in connection with pyramid schemes, chain letters, junk e-mail, spamming or any duplicative or unsolicited messages (commercial or otherwise) is prohibited, and users cannot violate any law, statute, ordinance or regulation that involves defamation, trade libel, threats, unlawful harassment, abusive or obscene language or images, “including child pornography, and/or pornography of an incestuous nature.” But, if you want to push the envelope re: free speech matters, just make sure you have proof, citations, or other materials that will back up your claims. Host QT is one of those Web hosts that will give users the benefit of the doubt. Their hosting fees (starter plan) begin at $5.95 per month.
7. InMotion Hosting: We discovered free speech Web sites hosted here, but we were unsuccessful in any hate site discoveries. They don’t allow pornographic material (including Anime), fraud, mailbombing, denial of service attacks, storing and/or housing and/or linking to illegal content. But, they seem to look the other way in regards to freedom of speech, especially mainstream pro-inclusive sites. Several of their hosting packages have been upgraded recently to include more disk space, bandwidth, email and more. Their packages start with a small personal Web hosting plan and increase in space, bandwidth, and features up to Virtual Personal and Dedicated server systems. Their least expensive package with our current coupon comes to $3.00 per month.
8. NoZoneNet: This hosting company, now known as Steadfast, states that they “will not tolerate any unlawful activity or abuse on our servers. We respect freedom of speech and expression unless it is harmful to others.” But, this AUP must extend to hate sites, as at least one was found on this company’s network. Therefore, either this site has gone under Steadfast’s radar, or they’re also open to site that promote free speech. Steadfast Networks and Steadfast Servers are fully owned subsidiaries of NoZone, Inc., which was founded in August of 1998 by Karl Zimmerman and incorporated in the state of Wisconsin on October 18, 2000. Their least expensive hosting option — shared hosting — begins at $25.00 per year (comes to $2.08 per month).
9. EveryDNS.net: This is where Wikileaks.org now resides. EveryDNS.net’s mission is to provide DNS services to the Internet community, so they provide static DNS services as well as many advanced services free at what they hope is 100 percent reliability. Their TOS states, “Member agrees: (1) to comply with US law regarding the transmission of technical data exported from the United States through the service; (2) not to use the Service for illegal purposes; (3) not to interfere with or disrupt networks connected to the Service; and (4) to comply with all regulations, policies, and procedures of networks connected to the Service.” This company does appreciate a donation, perhaps between $15.00 to $30.00 at user’s discretion.
10. DynDNS: If you want true freedom of speech, DynDNS sets two boundaries only: 1) you must be eighteen years of age to use their services, and; 2) you cannot reside in any of the countries named in the body of this article above. Otherwise, you and you alone are responsible for your content. This company offers domain name services (DNS), domain management, e-mail services, Web redirection, and network monitoring. All of their services include free technical support by e-mail or phone where you speak to a highly trained engineer rather than a call center reading a script off of a screen. They offer home and business solutions (clients include CNN and Twitter, so you know they can handle high traffic), and systems in the DynDNS clusters are commodity-based hardware running the FreeBSD operating system. Switching and routing operations are powered by Juniper and Cisco equipment. Best of all, it’s free to create an account.

While the Rails addict may be perfectly happy with his or her RoR application, some users might be less than thrilled with some Rails hosting environments. A good Rails host will provide Shell/SSH access, Fast CGI, SCGI and/or Mongrel support, the latest RoR releases, knowledgeable support staff with Rails documentation on board, and scalability options to meet future growth.

With that said, we’ve compiled this handy list of 10 Web hosts that provide a friendly environment for RoR applications. This Ruby on Rails Web host list is compiled by price, from most to least expensive. This methodology does not mean that we value one host over another, either by price or by service.

1. Blue Host: Blue Host offrs one set of hosting features with four ways to pay. All four solutions provide capabilities for Rails. You have Shell access (SSH), SSL, FTP, stats, 24×7 support, FCGI for Rails and a Cpanel that contains Ruby, Rubygems and an RoR management console. Users also receive a 30-day money-back guarantee and a forum and documentation online to make your transition and hosting experience more enjoyable. Be aware that Blue Host charges for SSL accounts and for domain reactivations, a normal procedure. Current price for a site with unlimited domains is $4.95 per month through our coupon.
2. Go Daddy: Go Daddy provides a one-stop shop where users can register Internet domain names and host a site for just about any service imaginable. RoR is welcome, as Go Daddy provides services for a vast array of language, scripting and framework options. They offer a 99.9% network uptime commitment and 24/7 support with every sale, but our concern is the lack of access to the command line in Shell. You can learn from others how they handled this shortfall. Otherwise, the nice part about the Go Daddy deal is that RoR is included in their least expensive packages. Begin hosting your Rails site for as little as $4.99 per month for a two-month contract. Save more if you go long-term. Upgrade at any time.
3. HostGator.com: HostGator.com’s services are designed for beginners and for professionals. Plus, they provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee, a great support system and a 45-day money back guarantee. Their basic Linux Web hosting plan includes RoR capabilities, and users can choose among three various plans with three different price structures. You can always expand your site or upgrade at any time at Hostgator.com, and options include shared, reseller and dedicated hosting solutions. Currently, the lowest price for hosting options at HostGator.com is $4.95 per month, and this price includes 24×7 support, instant backups, unlimited MySQL databases and much more.
4. Web Hosting Pad: Web Hosting Pad’s mission is to deliver the best value in Web hosting at an affordable price. They offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and their data center offers complete redundancy in power, HVAC, fire suppression, network connectivity, and security. As a Rails user, you might be surprised to learn that Web Hosting Pad offers the same package to all clients; therefore, you don’t need to dicker on the price. Currently, they’re running a sale at only $3.96 per month, and you can get free months if you sign for a long-term hosting option (limited-time offer).
5. HostMonster.com: This Web host provides a 99.9% network and server uptime guarantee, excellent support via phone, email and live chat, and the ability for you to cancel an account at any time without penalties with with a pro-rated full refund of the unused portion of your hosting agreement. HostMonster.com offers one set of hosting features and four ways to pay. For Rails developers, HostMonster.com provides SSH Access (Secure Shell), SSL, FTP (can create separate FTP accounts for your domains), Stats and CGI. Take advantage of their user forums and a current coupon discount of $6.95 per month.
6. Media Temple: Media Temple provides users with several options for hosting, but they all are based upon a grid service (gs), a completely new hosting application that supplies room for up to 100 sites along with a 64 MB Ruby/Mongrel container, their ‘MySQL GridContainers,’ and MySQL SmartPool v.2 with load-leveling technology, burst-able database resources and more. The “Mongrel” server should tip you off that Media Temple is ready for RoR users, and they also supply instant scalability for growth. While the boost to a higher priced tier may not be in your plans, this option actually tells you that this hosting service is dedicated to making sure your site survives through uber-heavy traffic spikes. Currently, you can get on board with the basic grid service for $20 per month.
7. Rails Machine: Rails Machine was founded in 2006 to create the ultimate hosting environment for the Ruby on Rails community. Rails Machine offers “a smooth ride for your Rails application,” no matter if you’re deploying your applications in a hosted environment or in an internal corporate environment. All of their hosting products include their “Ask Us Anything” support. They offer dedicated server cores with custom resource allocation to meet any need, so you can order anything from a single virtual server to an entire dedicated server with multiple virtual servers molded to meet your requirements and specifications. And, you can begin small and work up. The minimal package is $150.00 per month, and plans can be deployed within one to two business days.
8. Hosting Rails: This site is focused on Rails apps, and their FAQ and other documentation validates their focus. In business since 2006, they have been growing at a steady clip since. They offer Mongrel servers, FastCGI, a custom Rails app installation service with optional SVN and Capistrano instruction, and their support staff consists of Rails developers. They offer 24×7 eTicket support, forums and tutorials as well. Scaling up for growth is an option that you can take any time. Currently, their least expensive hosting package for a “Custom” Rails deployment is $79.00 per app, with options for monthly bandwidth that range from $3.59 to $19.98 per month. Users also can add memory for a monthly fee.
9. Brightbox: Brightbox originally began as a project that hosted RoR apps for clients on dedicated servers. Now they provide virtual dedicated servers optimized for hosting Ruby on Rails applications. Each box comes with a Ruby on Rails stack preinstalled, Managed MySQL database servers and is based on the Xen virtualization platform. You’ll receive better resilience and scalability, yet less complexity than with traditional dedicated server solutions with Brightbox. You’ll also have full root access to your server, and capabilities to upgrade your RM or server space. Currently, Brightbox offers four separate packages with four pricing structures. The lowest priced package is $67.00 per month.
10. RailsPlayground: RailsPlayground is an advanced hosting provider geared toward developers, and was one of the first rails specific hosting companies when it started in 2005. All developer and reseller accounts feature FastCGI and RoR support, SSH Shell access, Ruby Gems, SPAN modules, PEAR modules (available by request), a SVN/Trac control panel and a 30-day money-back guarantee. RailsPlayground provides documentation through a Wiki/FAQ, forums, Look for Mongrel servers, each with its own control panel and SSH access, or virtual private services with pre-configured rails environment. The least expensive of those two options is the first, currently offered at $5.00 per month.

First, your host must carry PHP version 4.3 or higher and MySQL version 4.0 or higher for the WordPress databases run smoothly. WordPress recommends Apache or Litespeed as the “most robust and featureful” server for running WordPress, but any server that supports PHP and MySQL will do. With that said, what happens if you do make Digg’s home page? Will your server handle the traffic spike?

If you don’t need the flexibility provided by a full Web host, you might consider getting a free blog on WordPress.com. However, many Web managers like the flexibility and freedom provided by a full Web host. Hence, the following ten hosts that are built to handle all the possible problems a WordPress fanatic might face. Some of the sites are recommended by WordPress, others are featured WHDB hosts, and others are choices made through our trial and error.

The sites listed below all feature more than adequate PHP and MySQL features, so the major differences among the hosting solutions are the ability to handle traffic spikes and price. Although the sites are listed from most to least expensive, this pricing priority does not dictate the quality of any of the Web hosts listed below.

1. IX Web Hosting: IX simply put is one of the most reliable Web hosts in the industry. And to prove it, they offer a 30-day money back guarantee. Two other reasons why we like them? 1) They’ve been around since 1999; 2) they control their own data centers. (That’s right: they’re not just another reseller!) WordPress is one of over 30 applications that IX Web Hosting offers right out of the box. Installing WordPress at IX is a simple one-click installation process that even a dummy can figure out! With plans starting at $3.95/month, IX Web Hosting is our #1 solution for WordPress.
2. Laughing Squid: This Web hosting solution is a WordPress recommended site, but it’s independently owned and operated. They provide dependable and secure hosting services to artists, individuals, bloggers, non-profits and small businesses. Despite the nature of their focus on smaller sites, they are proud of this status. One of their goals is to “rescue you from the endless void of impersonal and unreliable web hosting.” But, Laughing Squid also is known for reliability and functionality. They offer four hosting plans, and all focus on using WordPress as a featured blogging software. The “Tiny Squid” option is their least expensive, and it runs between $8.00 and $10 per month.
3. AN Hosting: This host has been serving WordPress users since 2003, and they’re one of the WordPress preferred hosts. AN Hosting provides unlimited MySQL databases, large disk space and tons of bandwidth. Users can add unlimited subdomains and expect a 99.9% uptime guarantee. AN Hosting has won numerous awards for customer service and support, and you can chat live with a sales person before you make any crucial decisions. Currently, you can snag an AN Hosting solution that supports any WordPress site for just $7.95 per month.
4. HostICan: HostICan has become the preferred Web host for many WordPress users, and it’s recommended by WordPress. Their WordPress setup is so easy to use that beginners can get the hang of the one-click technology without blinking an eye. Hosting package includes 99.99% uptime guarantee, unlimited subdomains and MySQL databases. HostICan provides solid 24×7 customer support, and their support team has won awards for its swift ticket replies and for their best-of-class customer service. You can give this user-friendly hosting service a whirl at $6.95 per month for their base hosting service that includes a money-back risk-free guarantee.
5. StartLogic: StartLogic, a WHDB featured host, provides two data centers in the Boston, MA area, and both networks include a pooled server environment that provides faster loading times and fewer service interruptions than traditional hosting infrastructures. Thousands of business the world over depend upon StartLogic for their advanced and easy-to-use system as well as their 24×7 toll-free technical support and 99.9% uptime guarantee. Currently, StartLogic offers a bargain with free setup and domain starting at $6.50 per month. However, if you don’t need the setup or domain, you can secure a hosting solution that supports WordPress for $5.95 per month.
6. Dreamhost: Dreamhost is a WordPress-recommended hosting solution, as this company offers Web Hosting using Unix only with numerous service plans designed to fit the individual customer’s needs. Dreamhost also is a WHDB featured host. With a WordPress auto-install and upgrade, plenty of disk and storage space and a screaming bandwidth allowance, you can’t go wrong with Dreamhost. This company offers several packages with a wide range of monthly fees. With the longest money-back trial period in the industry (97 days), you can rest assured that – if this hosting solution isn’t right for you – you can move on after adequate time to make your decision. Currently, Dreamhost packages start at $5.95 per month.
7. PowWeb: PowWeb calls their system a “Load-Balanced” hosting solution, which helps to handle traffic spikes and eliminates all single points of failure. It’s the same system that many large corporations use when hosting mission-critical Web sites, so you can rest easy knowing that your WordPress site will flow smoothly – even if you’ve accumulated several databases. Additionally, this WHDB featured host uses its own equipment and their downtime is minimal as they monitor their system constantly. Their team also provides customers with excellent support through support forums, a blog, eTickets, by phone and through online technical support. Finally, PowWeb provides various payment options, so you can pay monthly or up to two years in advance. PowWeb now starts at $5.77 per month for their “All in One” Web hosting that includes WordPress features.
8. Go Daddy: Although Go Daddy is known for its domain registration capabilities, they’re building a huge reputation for their reliable hosting at bargain-basement prices. Go Daddy is connected to multiple diverse upstream providers with rocket-fast Tier-1 bandwidth and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They employ 24×7 support personnel, so you can have questions answered at any time through tutorials, email, online tickets, phone and community support. Even their budget-priced solutions are adequate for WordPress users, so you can build upon a basic plan and work upwards as your site grows. Currently, this WHDB featured host offers an economy plan for two months at $4.99 per month.
9. Blue Host: Blue Host is one of the sites recommended by WordPress, as hosting services include unlimited disk storage, unlimited data transfer, and the ability to host unlimited domains on one account. Also, Blue Host provides for as many as 50 MySQL databases. Blue Host boasts 24×7 network monitoring, 99% uptime guarantee, mirrored storage backups and no hidden fees. According to the host, they were voted best technical and customer support for four years, from 2004 through to 2008. All hosting accounts are paid up front and in full at sign up, but hosting comes with a 30-day money back guarantee. Currently, users can sign up with Blue Host for $4.95 per month, a two-dollar per month savings.
10. Dot5 Hosting: This hosting solution has won the “Best Budget Hosting by Hosting-Review and “Best Web Host” by Top-10-Web-Hosting. They’re known for their ability to host everything from small personal sites to the busy commercial site with several databases. Dot5 Hosting guarantees maximum uptime along with mirrored storage backups, and they provide more than adequate hosting power for any WordPress user. Their hosting plans range from quarterly to two years, and their 24×7 call center technical support is included with any plan. Currently, Dot5 Hosting provides WordPress solutions at $3.95 per month.

Never mind the number of social media Web site memberships you have. Think about what it takes to support the viewers on a site like Twitter or YouTube. What if you needed that type of traffic support for your site? Even if you don’t plan for massive viewership, one day the New York Times may deride one of your comments, or Oprah might recommend your insights to her army of viewers. Can your current host withstand the traffic spike?

If you have doubts about whether your current Web host provider can handle massive traffic spikes or if you’ve already experienced down time because of a database overload from your blog, then you need more support. One answer to your dilemma includes grid or cluster hosting. One of the key benefits to both solutions is the ability to balance workloads while enabling recovery from inevitable hardware failures. When hardware or software is overtaxed, another server can pick up the burden. These systems are designed to pumping the juice. The difference between the two types of hosting is that grid hosting may not contain all servers in the same location, whereas all servers are in one location with cluster hosting.

If you’re looking for a reliable hosting system and you don’t mind paying a bit more for that reliability, the following ten host providers are worth your inspection. This Web host list, which focuses entirely on grid and cluster services, is compiled by price, from most to least expensive. This methodology does not mean that we value one host over another, either by price or by service.

1. Layered Technologies: Layered Technologies (LT) offers The Grid Layer (TGL) based on grid or utility computing. LT also can help with disaster recovery. They use 3.84 Tbps of switching and routing capacity designed for the needs of enterprise and carrier-class customers, multiple gigabit Ethernet backbone trunks, core network is designed for “zero” packet loss, embedded sFlow port supports scalable hardware-based traffic monitoring across all switch ports without impacting performance and multi-homed Internet providers. additionally, LT offers 24×7 knowledge base, forums, tutorials, FAQ and more to clients for technical support. The current price for the basic Grid Service Layer is $1696.00 per month with a $349.00 setup fee.
2. GoGrid: GoGrid is a division of ServePath, a company with extensive expertise and experience in web hosting infrastructure. GoGrid, the first multi-tier grid hosting platform, allows you to manage your Internet infrastructure completely on demand through an intuitive Web interface. You manage your servers through a multi-server hosting control panel and you scale your web applications or networks quicker and easier than ever before. The click-to-add interface allows users to add a “Load Balancer” is just as easy as adding a Web or database server. You are in charge! But, you also can expect 24×7 support. This is a beta site, and prices are “pay as you go” by “RAMhours.” 720 Server RAM/hours are equated for a month in one example, which – at $0.19 per RAMhour – would come to $136.80 per month.
3. Mosso: This host provider serves up scalable hosting and additional “capacity kicks” in as you need it. There’s no hardware to buy and you only pay for what you use. They used RackSpace‘s expertise to develop this business, their engineering and platform of cluster servers. As a result, Mosso’s ‘Hosting Cloud’ is deeply integrated to avoid system failure. They own and develop everything from the systems to the control panel software. And, their developers are part of their 24×7 support team, so you’ll receive expert help when you need it. Additionally, Mosso, in partnership with Native Energy, is countering their environmental impact by offsetting the power they use from fossil fuels with renewable energy credits. Currently, a hosting ‘cloud’ account at Mosso is $100.00 per month.
4. Media Temple: Media Temple (mt) hosts some of the largest companies in the U.S., including Adobe, NBC Universal, Starbucks, and Time Inc. Their basic grid service supplies room for up to 100 sites along with a 64 MB Ruby/Mongrel container, their ‘MySQL GridContainers,’ and MySQL SmartPool v.2 with load-leveling technology, burst-able database resources and more. Their upper-level services include a dedicated virtual server geared toward resellers, their (dpv) Nitro with quad-core processing and SAS hard drives, and their (cx) Complex Hosting plan. All plans offer instant scalability, which supports any site that experiences traffic spikes. Current basic grid hosting service runs $20.00 per month.
5. Infrenion: Infenion’s servers are physically located in the U.K. and this company serves a U.K. and U.S. client base that seeks affordable hosting solutions. Infrenion.com recently has launched video-sharing hosting, which also is known as FFmpeg hosting or “YouTube hosting”, and this company gradually is growing into a leadership position in the online video sharing hosting industry. As a growing leader of video sharing hosting, Infrenion.com offers the most solid network foundation possible. All servers are dual Xeon 2.4GHz processors with minimum 2GB to 4GB of RAM. Specializing in datacenter and hosting facilities, INFOMART is home to multiple datacenters including MCI, Level 3, Equinix, Verio, Switch & Data, Verizon, DataSides, and more. Currently, Infrenion’s FFMPEG YouTube Clone hosting is priced at $14.99 per month.
6. GridLayer: GridLayer is a “daughter” of Layered Technologies (mentioned above). Using 3tera’s award-winning AppLogic OS, Layered Technologies is able to provide grid computing solutions by harnessing the power of their data centers and making it available to you on-demand – processing power, bandwidth, and storage capacity. With their Web-based grid solutions, there’s never any hardware to deploy, configure or maintain. The grid assembles all the infrastructure pieces needed on-demand, configures them and runs your application on top. Although GridLayer is only a year old, it has managed to garner an impressive list of clients. And, GridLayer is much less expensive than its parent. Current prices begin at $49.00 per month.
7. Concentric: Concentric provides businesses with scalable and affordable messaging, collaboration, and web hosting services uniquely delivered in a single account. Don’t let this focus on business intimidate you, however, as Concentric hosts domains for companies of all sizes ranging from one employee to organizations with high-traffic, large-bandwidth needs. They’re the only service to hold a patent for Clustered Hosting architecture. Leveraging this unique technology configuration, Concentric “offers a virtually inexhaustible server resource with built-in redundancy, and delivers superior performance and reliability on demand.” Currently, Concentric offers $9.95 per month hosting with a twelve-month prepay.
8. FastNext: FastNext offers a cluster solution for your Web hosting needs, among several other options. They own all their servers, and they recently upgraded those servers to AMD Opterons that use 64-bit Linux operating system to provide customers with the fastest platforms available. The servers have at least 2GB RAM and multiple hard drives in RAID 10 configuration. This equipment allows for the fastest data restoration possible should an operating system or server failure occur. They also deploy backup servers attached to 3.6TB or greater disk arrays over a private Gigabit Ethernet network. Current cluster hosting plan prices begin at $9.95 per month, but if you pay in advance, the prices drop.
9. NetFirms: NetFirms offers cluster Web hosting, among various other options. They offer separate server grids that are tasked to Linux and Windows HTTP processing, database processing, file storage and e-mail processing. All of these services are managed through a single control panel interface, FTP or Secure Shell (SSH). Load balancers seamlessly direct requests to the appropriate cluster. As traffic to your website increases, more and more servers are automatically added to each server cluster. Your website will be up and running fast – even when it’s featured on a busy news site like Slashdot or CNN. Current prices for NetFirms’ cluster hosting option start at $4.45 per month.
10. PowWeb: PowWeb provides state-of-the-art “load-balanced” Web hosting platform to ensure maximum uptime for its customers. PowWeb uses its own equipment, and their backbone includes high speed OC12/48 connection for efficient and reliable high-speed performance. They have teamed up with a major connection tier 1 provider to bring customers reliable services. In addition to the company supported software and services, customers can grow their online presences through added applications and upgrades to current products. Additionally, PowWeb provides one play with many different options and with three ways to pay. Customers can pay their bills monthly, for three months, for one year or for two years. Current prices begin at $3.88 per month with an online special (six months free when you pay for six months).

The following coupons are numbered, but this does not mean that we value one coupon or business over another. They are listed in alphabetical order under each category for ease of use. We do need to warn you that many coupons expire, often without notice. So, jump on these deals today before you lose their money-saving values.

Advertising

Online advertising is a necessity for any business, as you can reach compatible markets through a variety of methods. Through the coupons listed below, you can save up to $884.75 in email services, online ads, free press release distribution and more.

1. Best of the Web: Drive targeted traffic to your site through premier placement in relevant categories. Best of the Web is so confident of their services that they offer sixty days free to new customers. This is a savings of $99.90
2. Clicksor: Use coupon code “Coupon2007″ to receive a $20.00 bonus on sign-up with Clicksor’s contextual advertising.
3. Email Newsletters: Convert your contacts into customers with the advice from this eBook. No credit card required. This is a free download, originally priced at $29.95. Template Zone also carries other free resources, including free email templates and more.
4. Facebook: Receive $50.00 Facebook ads with coupon code “2JXY-WTFK-72Y0-VJ6Y.” And, you can sign into Facebook, add the Visa Business Network App, and receive a coupon for $100.00 in advertising credit. Total, $150.00 savings.
5. Free Press Release: Why pay for press release marketing? Distribute your press release to news engines and search engines immediately and save up to $200.00 or more for this service.
6. Network Solutions: Use coupon code, “OFFERCOUM1″, to receive $25.00 off an order of $150.00 or more on their online products. This offer is good until the end of this month.
7. RSSMagician: Use the code “LUCKYYOU4876000″ to receive twenty percent off your order with RSSMagician. If you take on their blog solution, you could save at least $40.00.
8. StreamSend: Take a test drive of StreamSend and launch your first email marketing campaign in minutes. They offer free service for thirty days for a savings of up to $159.90.
9. Survey Gizmo: This company provides you with a way to gauge your online advertising through surveys. Use coupon code “UPG723″ to save various amounts depending upon the account you open. You can save up to $60.00 for an Enterprise account.
10. Text Link Ads: Get started with Text Link Ads, and they will provide you with $100.00 in free text link ads. No promotional code needed.

Print Matter

Even if your presence is mainly online, you’ll need business cards and stationery, personalized checks and even a brochure, to help promote your product or service. The following coupons can help you reach those goals, as they could help you save up to $748.60.

11. Checks Unlimited: Go through this link to save up to fifty percent on your business checks. You can save at least $37.00 on 600 desk sets.
12. endicia: This company already provides a free 30-day trial upon sign-up, but you can receive an additional 30 days with coupon code “ABEL05″. The savings to you is $9.95 per month, or $19.90 for two months free standard service.
13. InkGrabber: If you really want to save some cash, you’ll do tons of printing at the office (or home office). This site will help with ink costs with ten percent off all ink cartridge orders if you use coupon code “saver.” The savings will vary, but if you order five HP Color LaserJet 1500L cartridges, you can save up to $30.00.
14. iPrint.com: This link will provide you with twenty percent off everything at iPrint.com. So, make a list and check it twice – you can save over $100 or more with a stationery order, but you also can save on rubber stamps, photo gifts and more. Plus, you receive free shipping for any order over $75.00.
15. Moo.com: Although Moo.com is located in London, they deliver their printing to you no matter where you’re located. Give them a shot with this link for their new bulk discounts. They’re offering twenty percent off business cards and fifteen percent off postcards. You save $17.97 on business cards and $9.98 on postcards (not including possible savings on postage!). The total savings? $27.95.
16. Overnight Prints: Don’t pay full price for postcards. Use the coupon code “POSTCARDSALE” to receive up to $50.00 off an order of 1,000 postcards.
17. Paper.com: For a limited time, save twenty percent on select summer-themed invitations, letterhead, flat cards and more. This could translate into a savings of $80.00 or more if you need 1,000 summer-themed invitations.
18. PhotoWorks: If you need photos of your staff, your products, or of a job well done for promotions, try this link for 25 free prints. Twenty-five prints at PhotoWorks usually run $.15 per print, so you can save $3.75.
19. Printing for Less: Receive 25% off on your first time orders from Printing for Less with coupon code “NCJS8″. If you need 250 stationery, envelopes and business cards, order them all at once and save at least $200.00, as you also can receive a free box of business cards with your stationery order (no coupon needed for the free business cards).
20. Vistaprint: Use this link to get twenty-five percent off anything on the site. You could go wild, but we’ll say that you can save at least $200.00 on various ‘necessities’.

Search Engine Optimization

If you’re in business, you can’t avoid dealing with search engine optimization. The correct implementation of this practice does, after all, define your ranking on search engines. The following SEO coupons and savings will put about $581.23 back into your pocket.

21. AOLStalker: Use coupon code “000301626″ to receive thirty percent off entire store and online purchases. Since this is an open-ended savings, depending upon what you purchase, we’ll say you can save at least $30.00.
22. BlogSolution: Use coupon code “luckyyou4876000″ to receive a twenty percent discount on BlogSolution materials. The final current price on BlogSolution products is $207, so you will save $41.40.
23. iNeedHits: This company usually runs various ‘percent off’ deals on many of their services. In this instance, you can save at least $39.90 on their Basic Search Engine package.
24. INetZeal: Use coupon code “INZBUZZ” to receive twenty percent off any service. You can save at least $330.00 if you opt for their ‘Package 2C,’ which contains everything from press release writing to detailed SEO reports.
25. MarketingProfs: Use coupon code “newbasic: to receive twenty percent off their premium membership for new members. The premium membership currently is $149.95 per year, so you’ll save $29.99.
26. Register.com: When you sign up for Register.com’s r.Submit and r.Promote packages, you receive one month free. This equates to a total savings of $44.94. No coupon code needed.
27. SEO Tutor: Use this link to save $30.00 on SEO Tutor’s training materials. They also offer 250+ online directories, which they say are “worth their weight in gold!” Since gold fluctuates in value, we won’t add that amount.
28. Submit Suite: You don’t need a coupon code for this special, but you might want to act fast. Submit Suite is offering a deal where you can purchase their complete Search Engine Optimization Suite package and get a 25% discount. This translates to a savings of $35.00.

Search Marketing

Most search engines will provide a PPC coupon code to help you get started, although these codes usually don’t apply to an initial minor deposit to activate the account. Instead, they will apply toward your activated account. At any rate, the combined savings below totals $897.50!

29. 1Second: 1Second currently is celebrating its ten-year anniversary, and they want to give all customers a free $100.00 advertising bonus.
30. 411Seek: Get a twenty-five percent discount on all deposits of $10 and more and a ten percent discount on any amount less. You save at least $2.50 on this site that provides more than 10,000 searches per day.
31. ABCsearch: This pay-per-click network search engine marketer will match your initial deposit up to $100.00.
32. BigClique: When you sign up with BigClique, you’ll receive a twenty percent bonus on your first deposit up to $2,000.00. That means you could save up to $400.00.
33. Enhance: Receive $25 in free clicks when you sign up with Enhance Interactive. No code needed, as this is an ongoing promotion.
34. eValueBuy Search: If you sell products, this site will enhance your sales. This site will match the deposit you put in a new account up to $100.00.
35. FindLaunch: Sign up for an advertising account at FindLaunch for free and they will credit your account with $25.00 automatically.
36. Miva: If you sign up with Miva now, you’ll receive a $25.00 free credit toward your advertising with this search engine vehicle.
37. Search123: Fund your site listing for $50 with Search123, and you’ll receive $20.00 in free targeted search clicks.
38. Yahoo!: When you sign up to Yahoo! Small Business advertising, you’ll receive a $100.00 credit.

Design Help

You may know how to optimize any search engine, market your wares, and sell ice cubes to polar bears, but you may not know the first thing about how to design your marketing materials. The following folks can help, and their savings and coupons will return up to $360.70.

39. Getty Images: Use coupon code “4n4pc46n” to receive twenty percent off a single transaction before the end of the year (as in December 31). This coupon is somewhat limited, as you cannot use it for Dick Clark Productions and Artbeats footage clips, Pump Audio, Orchard and Media Manager. However, if you use it for one image, you can save at least $9.80.
40. iStock: Use coupon code “lynda303″ to receive twenty percent off an order of $50 or more stock photographs and illustrations. Minimum savings is $10.00.
41. LogoBee: Enter coupon code “2309″ when you place your order for a logo, and you’ll receive $20.00 off a professional design.
42. Logoworks: Use coupon code “hpinvent” to receive $50.00 off any Logoworks package.
43. Photoshop Support: Use coupon code “save20pss” at this do-it-yourself site and save twenty percent on tutorials. You can pocket up to $10.00 and more at this site with this coupon.
44. Shutterstock: If you need stock photos for print or for your Web site, use the coupon code “How10″ to receive ten percent off a subscription at Shutterstock. This coupon could save you up to$255.90 on a one-year account.
45. Stockxpert: Click on that link for Stockxpert to receive five free credits when you sign up for their stock photo solutions. This is a savings, minimum, of $5.00.

Marketing and Public Relations

The following coupons can save you up to $4,121.00 in services from marketing professionals, public relations experts, and tools for DIY marketing and promotion.

46. 1888 Press Release: You don’t need a coupon code to receive almost seventy percent off this company’s press release services. They offer over $200.00 minimum services for free when you register to send a press release.
47. Branders: You can slap your logo on thousands of items offered through this online venue. Samples are free, and new customers can apply a $50.00 credit to an order of already low-priced merchandise.
48. Lake Quincy Media: Sign up for this company’s advertising packages and receive up to forty-five percent off an introductory package. Their best value, however, is the “Blue Heron” that includes product spotlights to leaderboards for only $2,999.00. You save $2,471.00.
49. PR Newswire: This news and press release service is dedicated to helping small business owners with their marketing tools. For a limited time, you can take advantage of their free PR Toolkit, as well as more than $1,400 in free and discounted services.

Web Site Specials

You can save thousands of dollars through the coupons offered through this site, but the following handful of Web site promotions are ones that aren’t listed. Take advantage of these savings, that amount to $356.38.

50. GoDaddy Shopping Cart: With this Quick Shopping Cart, you can create and publish a stand-alone Internet store or add one to your existing Web site in a matter of minutes. GoDaddy will help you save by offering discounts on already low prices and special deals to seal the sale. Currently, you can save as much as $6.38 per month on their top Premium Package, and you also receive (among other goodies) a $200 credit toward Microsoft’s adCenter and a $50 credit toward your Google AdWords account. Total savings amount to $256.38.
51. Lynda.com: Learn about code, accessibility, usability, color and more through Lynda Weinman’s site. Coupon code “ug200otl” will provide you with $50.00 off an annual subscription (does not work with premium subscription).
52. Hostpapa and PromoPeople: Receive a free $50 coupon for PromoPeople towards your first order when you purchase any hosting package at HostPapa. You save $50.00, no code needed.

The problem with FriendFeed is that it was, until March 2008, just one more way to find out what posters were up to in their business and personal lives across the board; and, anyone who has used FriendFeed can tell you that this aggregated feed sometimes can become overwhelming. But, when FriendFeed released their API in March 2008, a frenzy of FriendFeed apps, widgets and plugins appeared to make FriendFeed friendlier. This API is designed to make it possible for anyone to improve FriendFeed or integrate FriendFeed into other applications. Developers can develop a FriendFeed interface for a mobile phone, build a FriendFeed widget for your blog, or develop an application that makes it easy to post photos to your feed from your iPhone. And, they’ve done just that, only not fast enough for non-developers! But, it seems that new developments are being published daily, so be patient and try out the apps listed below while you wait.

The following list was created to update users on over forty developments to date that can be used to refine FriendFeed to your taste. We say, “40+” as you’ll find links to pages in the list below that contain even more lists of apps, so you’re dealing with at least 60+ applications through this article. Some apps demand Firefox, and others are cross-platform downloads. Some widgets and plugins are for Web developers and others are designed for mobile users. Each app, widget and plugin is listed alphabetically under each category, but we don’t favor one application over another. In fact, this list is meant only to be a list and not an endorsement of any of these applications.

Cross-Platform Apps

The following applications are usable for anyone, no matter if you operate on Windows, Mac or Linux. If you can connect to the Internet, then you’re ready to roll, as some apps, widgets and plugins are usable only through a Web interface. Other FriendFeed tools are downloads for your desktop. One note: If you find an app that is based upon Adobe AIR, then you know that app has been built for cross-platform use.

1. AlertThingy: This desktop application is one of the first applications built on the new FriendFeed API. It allows users to see the data stream from people they follow and to post new messages directly to the service. Users also can comment on posted items and bookmark them. As a plus, creator Howard Baines provides users with the ability to send and receive tweets with Twitter and post photos to Flickr as well. The installer will set up Adobe AIR upon installation, so Adobe AIR need not be preinstalled.
2. Feedalizr: This is an app created from Adobe AIR, so anyone from Windows to Linux users can download this desktop tool and use it. Once downloaded, add your user name and API Key to view a stream of updates from around the Web on your desktop. FriendFeed users can post directly through Feedalizr and read streams. This app also feeds from Twitter, Jaiku and Flickr.
3. FriendVenn: Confused about who you are subscribed to and who has subscribed to you? This Web tool divides your FriendFeed relationships into a Venn diagram that will help you see this information clearly, along with mutual subscriptions.
4. Gridjit: Although Gridjit has made its debut with Twitter, it’s in private alpha mode to bring FriendFeed into the fold. Gridjit will present your FriendFeed timeline as multiple columns. Sign up for the release.
5. My Social AIR: This desktop client splits Twitter and FriendFeed into tabs, and it supports video, picture viewing, avatars and thread rendering on FriendFeed. Although this is a beta, it’s received rave reviews. This app also is supported by Adobe AIR.
6. Posty: Posty, which is based upon Adobe AIR, allows users to stream FriendFeed as well as Twitter, Jaiku, Tumblr and Pownce. Just enter a post and select the networks where you want to send the update. You also can send the update to all five social networks at once.
7. Twhirl: Yes, this is a Twitter client, but the creators added a FriendFeed client shortly after the Twhirl debut. The FriendFeed app opens in a separate window, and this client is based upon the Adobe AIR platform.
8. Swurl: Bring FriendFeed into Swurl to create a blog and a calendar that documents your updates across the board. Unlike other apps, Swurl is a FriendFeed competitor, as you also can bring WordPress entries (even self-hosted sites), TypePad and Blogger, Facebook, Blockbuster, Netflix, StumbleUpon and more into your Swurl page. In addition, you can follow friends from FriendFeed at Swurl, but they’ll only be able to follow you if you hand out your Swurl domain name.

Firefox Apps

If you see the word, “Greasemonkey,” you might think “Firefox,” as Greasemonkey scripts define Firefox add-ons. The following list contains Greasemonkey scripts for FriendFeed that any Firefox browser will soak up like a sponge. If you’re interested in developing Greasemonkey scripts or if you merely want to stay on top of latest developments, you can peek into or join the Greasemonkey Room at FriendFeed.

9. Add Subscribe: This script, developed by Hao Chen, allows Firefox users to add a “subscribe” button for the people you aren’t subscribed to on the FriendFeed “Subscribed to Me” page.
10. Filter FriendFeed by Service: This app allows Firefox users to view a box with all of the service icons, and then filter the public timeline, your friends timeline, or any user’s timeline by service (such as Twitter, Digg, etc.).
11. FriendFeed Apps: This link will take you to a page with several apps offered by FriendFeed. Use tabs, show domains, add a sticky search and more with these addictive applications. All the applications on this page require Firefox, as they’re built as Greasemonkey scripts.
12. FriendFeed Profile: This Greasemonkey script, also developed by Hao Chen, allows users to import a Twitter profile and display it on FriendFeed. This script will only work if the user has his or her Twitter stream imported into FriendFeed.
13. FriendFeed Tabs: This link will take you to a list of tabs released in June this year. You can tab Twitter, Plurk, Readburner and more. This is an easy way to define incoming updates.
14. Internet Duct Tape FriendFeed Apps: These all are Greasemonkey scripts written for Firefox users. Start with this link to grab three apps: ‘Unsubscribe,’ ‘Who Are You’ and ‘Better By Service.’ At the bottom of their page you’ll find at least five or more scripts that will enhance your FriendFeed experience through Firefox.
15. MySocial 24×7: This download is a sidebar extension designed specifically for Firefox, and it allows users to explore FriendFeed through the “Everyone,” “Friends,” and your own feed. You can comment and ‘like’ any entry and you can reply to an entry via Twitter. MySocial 24×7 also supports Windows alerts and FFb3 on Mac with Growl. You must be logged in and know your ‘remote key’ to view all but the ‘Everyone’ feeds.
16. Read Later: This script adds a “Later” link under every post and a “Read Later” tab to the top. This is a great way to save updates for later viewing without having to search through a timeline twice (or more!).
17. Remove Visited Links: This Greasemonkey app helps to clean up a timeline by removing all visited links.

FriendFeed Apps

The following apps, widgets and plugins were created by an/ord are distributed through FriendFeed or through FriendFeed and another online presence such as Google (not including search and filter techniques listed at the end of this article):

18. FriendFeed | Facebook: If you maintain a Facebook presence, you can merge your Facebook into FriendFeed and vice-versa.
19. FriendFeed | iGoogle: This Web application is another way to connect to FriendFeed through an already popular online application.
20. FriendFeed Bookmarklet: This link isn’t easy to find on the FriendFeed site, but here you go…This tool allows users to go beyond the “share” feature to bookmark a page to FriendFeed along with a thumbnail of that Web page.
21. FriendFeed Embed: Nothing like advertising all your online activities on your Web site — and FriendFeed provides that ability through their ‘cut-and-paste’ one-line script. Just input your user name in the ‘title’ space, or use this URL: “http://FriendFeed.com/embed?user=yourname” and replace “yourname” with your user name.

Windows and Mac Users Only

Thanks to Adobe AIR, few apps have been developed that are not cross-platform. The following two apps, however, are useful to those individuals who run Windows OS or Mac computers:

22. bTT: This creation by Sobees allows Windows XP and .NET users to download a desktop app that helps to organize feeds and friends’ incoming content in a way that’s beneficial to the user. This tool aggregates information from multiple followers, where you can then take out the data you want to see through customization options.
23. Fluid: With Fluid, Mac users can create SSBs (Site Specific Browsers) to run favorite WebApps as a single separate Cocoa desktop application. Fluid gives any WebApp a home on your Mac OS X desktop complete with Dock icon, standard menu bar, logical separation from other web browsing activities, and many, many other goodies.

Mobile Users

While FriendFeed now plays nice with the iPhone and iPod Touch’s built-in Safari browser, few apps, widgets and plugins have been created for the mobile user to gain access to their FriendFeed accounts. The following list might be useful to those individuals who need to be on the run, but it’s a short list, to be sure! If you want to try to pull more social networking into your phone, you might try the new betas xumii or jibe.

24. FF to Go: This Web app was created by Benjamin Grubb, the same genius who created Tweet2Tweet and RSSMeme. To use this app, simply go to the link through your mobile, insert your ‘remote key’ and grab your FriendFeed in its entirety, including the ability to comment.
25. iPhone: At the end of June this year, FriendFeed announced a new version of their site that is optimized for the iPhone. This new version maintains an increased font size and includes a new “Post photos from your phone” link. When iPhone users log into FriendFeed, the new site will automatically appear.
26. MojiPage: MojiPage is a personalized homepage for your mobile phone, and they’ve developed a widget that allows users to view (and to view only) their FriendFeed account, including comments and ‘likes.’ It does not allow users to comment at this point.

Web Apps, Widgets and Plugins

If you maintain a Web site, blog or other online presence and you want to incorporate FriendFeed into your site, then you might find the following list of interest:

27. FriendFeed Activity Widget: This is a simple WordPress widget that pulls your FriendFeed stream, pretties it up a bit and shares it with visitors to your blog.
28. FriendFeed Comments Movable Type Plugin: This plugin for Movable Type enables you to import and display comments made using FriendFeed on your entries. You can also use the plugin to enable your blog commenter to “Cc.” their comments to FriendFeed, but only if they have a FriendFeed account.
29. FriendFeed Comments WordPress Plugin: This plugin will allows users to display on a blog the comments that people make on FriendFeed about your post. The plugin creates a snippet of code that you can drop into your template somewhere inside ‘the loop.’
30. FriendFeed Comments WordPress Widget: This WordPress widget takes comments and ‘likes’ from your FriendFeed posts and places them on a related post. The comments include the person’s name, a link to their FriendFeed profile and image. Your blog readers can comment on your posts directly on a form displayed directly under the FriendFeed comment. This last feature can be turned off if you wish.
31. FriendFeed Rooms WordPress Widget: If you’re involved in a FriendFeed “room,” then you might enjoy this widget. It allows users to comment to the room, to another comment in the room, bookmark comments and refresh the conversation. This is a WordPress widget, and it is public, installed into a blog, and the conversations are search-engine friendly. Users need a ‘remote key,’ or a password assigned to anyone who has a FriendFeed account.
32. FriendFeed Widget: This widget enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing. You cannot comment or ‘like’ any update, but the great feature is the photo and video capability. Limited size customizing ability, but plenty of skins available.
33. Lifestream Widget: This is an embeddable FriendFeed widget created by Arvind Narayanan that can fit into any Web site. You can control the width, height and background color and the generator hands over a script that you can add to your Web page. This widget shows only your activity on FriendFeed.
34. SocialFeed Widget: Simply input your user ID for FriendFeed, and the SocialFeed widget will display your latest updates. You also can customize this widget to display content from your favorite users in FriendFeed as well as eight other social network clients. This widget has skins and is customizable.

Search and Filters

FriendFeed rolled out a search feature in March this year, and registered users can search for friends’ shared items, an individual person’s items, or search all of FriendFeed. You also can restrict your search in an advanced option for any of the services that FriendFeed supports. For instance, you can search for a friend’s tweets or you can search for anything anyone says about you. Beyond this, the following apps, widgets, plugins and Web pages will help you further filter and search FriendFeed:

35. iGoogle FriendFeed Search: Add this widget to your iGoogle page to search for friends at FriendFeed.
36. FriendFeed Machine: This Web app enables users to filter between true “close friends” and those you just want to follow. This allows you to find your friends amid the FriendFeed noise while also identifying the tool that they use for communication (Twitter, Digg, etc.).
37. FriendFeedSpy: If you want noise, this Web site app, created by Michele Marcucci, will provide it. Every update from every user flies by on this page. On the other hand, once you log in you can filter the feed by service — Twitter, Digg, YouTube etc. Furthermore, you can log into your FriendFeed account, and this gives you the ability to instantly like or comment any item that passes by.
38. Google FriendFeed Search: If you don’t want to add the iGoogle app to your iGoogle page, then just go straight to this Web site to use the Google search to find friends at FriendFeed. Or, just go to Google and type, “site:FriendFeed.com searchword,” where ‘searchword’ will be replaced by the word that you want to find.
39. mioNews: mioNews combines an interface similar to Google Reader with the ability to sort items by “like” and “hate,” as well as the option to follow specific topics. The coolness factor in mioNews is — going back to the Google Reader layout — that you can choose to read just the titles or a short summary of the update. A reading pane, which is similar to Microsoft’s Outlook, allows users to read the entire item. Users also can share, comment, add the item as a ‘like’ or a ‘hate.’ You also can mark items as ‘read.’
40. Moopz: This Web app presents a sidebar with the popular posts, a tag cloud as well as a list of quiet posts. You can login with your FriendFeed username and remote key to ‘like’ and ‘comment’ on Moopz items, which are filtered by topic. This site helps to reduce FriendFeed’s ‘noise’ greatly, as it searches for and aggregates similar links and conversations.
41. NoiseRiver: This new app allows users to filter out noise while searching for entries that highlight chosen keywords. Log in when you arrive at the link and set your preferences with a sliding scale (“love” to “hate”). You can eliminate the “hate” keywords totally by hiding all communication that contains those words. This is a great tool for keyword searches, and users can post from the app as well.

The sum total of the Web women listed here represents just the tip of the iceberg on women involved with Web matters – although we agree with Zeldman that men seem to outnumber the women in this realm. With that said, the women we discovered are strong, talented, innovative and resourceful. And, many of them have joined forces to help each other and many other women. Since we restricted the list only to those women who maintain active blogs, we had to ignore such greats as Lynda Weinman,Rachel Andrew and Sas Jacobs. But, along the way, we discovered new resources and talents.

The list below is numbered, but that does not mean that we value one person or her skills over another. The lists under each category are in alphabetical order, and the links lead to each woman’s blog.

Women in Search

The same month and year that Zeldman wondered about women in the Web, Danny Sullivan wondered if SEM was no longer a “boy’s club.” Sullivan was looking at conferences, though, and a large number of women in SEO and SEM don’t attend conferences for various reasons. Even so, if the numbers that Sullivan quoted are growing, you can then imagine what’s going on outside conference doors. We simply chose nineteen women in this category, and we had to stop at that number so we could make room for other categories. If you travel to other links within the descriptions, you’ll find many more women involved in SEO and SEM.

1. Ask Kalena: Kalena Jordan represents one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia and New Zealand, and now she’s well known and respected worldwide for her search engine knowledge. She created the SEO company, Web Rank (now Jordan Consulting Group), in 1999, and remains its CEO. She also is co-founder and director of studies for Search Engine College, an online training institute that offers instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in SEO and Search Engine Marketing. She also is author of the Search Light newsletter and used to moderate the Search Engine Watch forums. “Ask Kalena” is a blog with attitude that focuses on search issues.
2. Bizresearch :Laura M.Thieme founded this company in1997, a business that provides SEO, paid search (CPC / PPC) campaign management, full-service search engine marketing services including website traffic analysis for retailers, law firms and Fortune 500 companies throughout the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. She is a frequent speaker at international search engine strategy conferences, and she is an expert witness in a case involving trademark and metatag concerns. Additionally, Bizresearch and a team of programming experts have developed a sophisticated analysis software program that enables clients to monitor their Web marketing process in real time. Her patent for Bizwatch(TM) was published and pending as of 2007. She posts about search themes in her blog, but she also entertains guest bloggers who write about their pets, their projects and pet projects.
3. Blogs and Feeds : Amanda G. Watlington, Ph.D. is the owner of Searching for Profit, a search marketing consultancy focusing on the interaction of the consumer with businesses using search engines, RSS, blogs, podcasting or other new media to deliver their messages. She is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld and other industry conferences. She’s the author of three books and has written dozens of feature articles for over thirty magazines and journals. She has twenty years of experience as a communications, sales and business strategy consultant, and over ten years as a search marketer (since 1995). Finally, Amanda serves as Search Engine Watch‘s multimedia, podcasting, and social search correspondent.
4. Bruce Clay – Friday Recap: Commonly known throughout the blogosphere as “The Lisa,” Lisa Barone serves as senior writer for Bruce Clay, Inc., a leading provider of search engine marketing services with emphasis on search engine optimization. Before Lisa came on board at Bruce Clay, she was the Web editor of a “five-man/four-dog online vinyl record operation.” She hounded Bruce for employment at Bruce Clay in 2006, and it didn’t take long for her blogs – specifically her “Friday Recap” – to become a hit. For that particular column, Lisa scours the Web for interesting topics and writes how this news may affect search – but she does so in a gossipy style that is scary, yet entertaining and always informative. Additionally, Lisa is responsible for internal projects and edits at Bruce Clay. She works alongside senior editor Susan Esparza.
5. Cre8tive Flow: Kim Krause Berg is owner of this site, which launched as the Cre8pc Web Promotion Club at Yahoo! Clubs (now known as Yahoo! Groups) in September 1998. She keeps the general public updated about her work and forum efforts in this blog. It was in the forum that Kim met Carol Daly of CreativeThought.com. Carol, being of the business persuasion, and Kim, who leaned toward Web design and search engine optimization, joined forces to build a community interested in building online businesses that are user-centered and search-engine friendly. This forum is the third incarnation of what was once known as the “Cre8pc Web Promotion Club,” and it is now known as “Cre8tive Flow.” Interest and membership from several well-known figures in the search engine optimization industry inspired the group to move into a full-fledged forum. Assisted by Elizabeth Able and Joe Dolson, the new Cre8asiteForums were launched August 30, 2002. According to the site, “We eat SEO gossip for breakfast, are obsessed with usability design issues, are passionate about web site business and are always learning new web design techniques.” Kim also blogs at Cre8pc.
6. DazzlinDonna: Donna Fontenot creates Web sites for “fun and profit,” but she also teaches others about SEO as a “means of giving back” to the Web community. Her blog lands somewhere between the two realms, but it mainly focuses on how to make a living online, at home, with a few home-related issues thrown into the mix. She’s the owner of SEO Scoop, a staff columnist for Personal Branding Magazine and she’s a moderator at both Cre8asite Forums (see #5) and Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
7. High Rankings: Jill Whalen had been in the search engine optimization field since the early 1990s, and she founded High Rankings five years later. Since then, High Rankings has grown to be one of the top SEO companies in the U.S., working with clients in more than forty industries to enhance their online presence through search engine strategies. Jill also is the founder of the popular High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum, now celebrating its fourth year. She hosts the High Rankings Advisor, a free search engine marketing email newsletter, and is the author of The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines. Regularly quoted in national and industry publications, Jill is frequently called upon to speak at conferences worldwide. She also leads the High Rankings SEO Training Classes in which attendees gain a soup-to-nuts perspective of how to maximize SEO for their organizations. In 2006, Jill co-founded Search Engine Marketing Network for New England (SEMNE), a regional organization that enables companies and individuals interested in search marketing to meet every other month to exchange ideas, learn new tactics and network.
8. In Search of Stuff: Scottie Claiborne is a woman with a man’s name from Right Click Web Consulting, the facilitator of the Successful Sites Newsletter. a speaker at the Search Engine Strategies conferences and the High Rankings (see #7) Seminars as well as the administrator of the High Rankings Forum. She joined forces with Michael Motherwell (“He is the boy with the girl’s hairc’t” – and Senior Search Consultant at WMS Consulting) to create one of the funniest search sites around. Searches, after all, are way too serious, so Claiborne and Motherwell created a blog about people “In Search of Stuff” with a twist. You can’t take them seriously. Or, can you? After writing thousands of link baits, you might find their sense of humor somewhat sympathetic.
9. Men of SEO: Don’t let the name of this blog fool you. It’s written by a woman who previously was known only as “SEO Fan Girl.” It wasn’t until the Chicago SES (Search Engine Strategies) that her true identity was revealed as Ylayn Merideth (Y.M.) Ousley, owner of the Internet marketing company, Exponetial , which has offices in both the U.S. and France. She also contributes to Search Marketing Gurus (see #12).
10. Researchbuzz : This link leads to Tara Calishain’s blog on news about search engines, databases, and online information collections that has been active since 1998. The real question that Tara answers is, “Would a reference librarian find it useful?” If the answer is yes, Tara adds it to her blog. She’s expanded the information in her blog over the past few years to build tools relevant to researchers and make them available on this site as well. If you wonder about Tara’s credibility, wonder no more – she’s an expert on Internet search engines and how they can be used effectively in business situations, according to O’Reilly, and she wrote the Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research in 1996 and co-authored a 2nd edition issued in 1998 with Jill Alane Nystrom. Tara also wrote the book, Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web, which was published in 2006.
11. Search Engine Guide : Jennifer Laylock has been involved in Internet marketing since 1995 and with SEO and SEM since 2001. After “serving her time” working for a variety of different firms, she left the world of traditional agencies to serve as editor-in-chief of Search Engine Guide, an industry site aimed at educating small business owners about search engine marketing. She also is author of The Small Business Guide to Search Engine Marketing and of the free Zero Dollars, a Little Bit of Talent and 30 Days series. Laycock now focuses primarily on education, training and consulting as an independent online marketing consultant for small to mid-size businesses throughout the U.S. She is a requested speaker and has served as both a panelist and a moderator at Incisive Media‘s popular Search Engine Strategies conferences along with speaking at Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Seminar (see #7), the Microsoft Small Business Summit, the virtual tradeshow eComXpo and served as a keynote speaker for the 2005 MIVA Small Business Conference .
12. Search Marketing Gurus: Liana “Li” Evans is the creator and main contributor to Search Marketing Gurus and has assembled a well rounded group of search marketing professionals to contribute to the blog. Li holds degrees in both public relations and information systems, and has an extensive IT and marketing background. This technical and market-savvy background enabled Li to “find the light” with search marketing in 1999. She now focuses on natural search optimization, blog promotion, search industry news, link baiting and viral marketing. Li is an active contributor and moderator on the Crea8asite Forums (see #5) and contributes from time to time on High Rankings (see #7), Search Engine Watch and Webmaster World forums. She’s in close contact with Christine Churchill, as she currently is employed at Christine Churchill’s company, KeyRelevance, as the Director of Internet Marketing and she also forms part of the “club” at the SEM Clubhouse (see below).
13. SEM Clubhouse: One member of the SEM Clubhouse, Christine Churchill, is president and founder of KeyRelevance and she’s a recognized expert in the field of SEM. She is a strong advocate for ethical search engine marketing, and was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). She currently serves as the Chairman of the Dallas-Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (DFWSEM), and she’s a regular speaker at SEO and other Internet events. In addition, she has written widely on search engine marketing and has taught SEO classes through the International Association of Webmasters. Prior to founding KeyRelevance, Christine was the Director of Web Development at NetMechanic. Christine consistently doubled search engine traffic to NetMechanic every 6-9 months. In addition to running KeyRelevance, Christine is the Search Engine Friendly Design and Usability Moderator and the Pay Per Click Moderator on the High Rankings Forums (see #7).
14. SEO Blog: Not only does Lisa Ditlefsen maintain this blog, she co-founded SEO Chicks with Anita Chaperon in an effort to get some “female attitude into the SEO and SEM blogosphere.” Lisa currently works as head of search at Base One, where she set up and developed the search department from scratch three years ago. Lisa has eight years experience in marketing, of which almost four years have been in SEO/SEM. She writes a regular column for B2B Marketing Magazine and also regularly contributes to other publications off- and online. She has been a speaker at both SMX (Search Marketing Expo) and SES conferences. Last year Lisa won an award at the B2B Marketing Awards 2007 in the category “B2B Newcomer of the Year.” This year Lisa won “Best Use of Technology by under 30 Year old Woman” at the Blackberry Women & Technology Awards.
15. SEOMoz: Rebecca Kelley is a search marketing consultant for SEOmoz, where she writes for the company’s blog and helps provide SEO resources to SEOmoz’s Internet marketing community. She also lends her expertise to various clients with specialization in link building, keyword research, link bait generation, site reviews and social media marketing. Rebecca also blogs for SEO Chicks (see #14), is a copy editor for Search Engine Land and moderates for Sphinn as “squishee.” Last, and not least, she’s a contributor to Fan Girl’s Men of SEO (see #9)
16. Sugarrae: “Never mess with a woman who can pull rank,” meaning search engine rankings. Rae Hoffman, also known as Sugarrae, is the principal of Sugarrae SEO Consulting, a company (and blog) that focuses on SEO, viral and affiliate marketing, site auditing, link development road maps and much more. She also owns MFE Interactive (Marked For Evaluation), a Web site publisher with a number of online properties. She’s a moderator at Webmaster World, is active at Sphinn, and you may find her at Facebook and/or Twitter as well.
17. The Link Spiel : Debra Mastaler will tell you that getting the right links on your Web site is vital for that site’s success. What’s difficult is influencing the right people to provide those links, and Debra will show you how to accomplish this goal. Debra is President of Alliance-Link, an interactive marketing company focused on providing custom link building campaigns and link training. In business since 2000, Debra offers a common sense approach to link building by combining traditional sales and promotional strategies with effective online search engine marketing tactics. She often is a featured guest speaker at SES and she’s a guest blogger for Search Engine Land and Search Engine Guide (see #11).
18. Vanessa Fox: Vanessa’s personal blog is entitled, “VanessaFox.Nude.,” which is a play on the fact that her name is associated with another woman who is a well-known adult entertainer. But, this Vanessa – who obviously has a sense of humor – deals more with adult solutions to page ranks, SEO and more. Her latest projects include Jane and Robot and Nine by Blue, both subjects dealing with search issues. She also works with Ignition Partners as an Entrepreneur in Residence, is a Features Editor at Search Engine Land, and has been “blogging plenty” at Google Webmaster Central, including a long stint at Inside Google Sitemaps blog.
19. WebMama’s Look at the Web Barbara “WebMama” Collis a search engine specialist, a pioneer of search engine marketing (SEM), and an internationally recognized leader in SEO. Barbara founded WebMama.com Inc. in September 1996, posts regularly in her blog, established the global non-profit Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), is a veteran speaker at the search engine strategies conferences and is a past member of the advisory board of the Internet marketing conference ad:tech.

Women in Marketing

Women in marketing is a bit different than women in SEO/SEM, as the women listed below deal less with technology and more with psychology and public relations. Many of these women have focused their expertise on how to market to other women. Does this make sense? We think so! We realize that we haven’t touched the depths of the women involved in this field, but we did choose the ones who seemed to be most active on the Internet. Each link listed below will take you to that woman’s blog.

20. andHow To Reach Women: Tami Anderson is the co-founder and principal of andHow, a company that specializes in helping brands better market to women. She has over fifteen years of marketing experience, working with both Fortune 500 companies and niche brands. She and her business partner, Elizabeth Howland, formed andHow because “they believe that if companies would be willing to listen, set aside stereotypes and clearly and consistently communicate their brand values to their segment(s) of the women’s market they’d be practically assured of success.”
21. Are You an Original?: This blog belongs to Anita Chaperon, the woman who co-founded SEO Chicks with Lisa Ditlefsen (see #14). But, that’s not her only claim to fame, as she had founded Reviewlicious.com as well. She’s deep into Internet marketing, but she has a well-rounded eight years of of marketing at all levels under her belt, including PPC (Pay Per Click), direct marketing and project management. She leaves SEO to Lisa and she takes on the rest.
22. Big Green Purse: If you want to empower women to use their marketplace clout to protect the environment, then you must find and talk with Diane MacEachern, founder and CEO of Big Green Purse. She’s launched the only company in the U.S. dedicated specifically to transforming women’s environmental concerns into measurable improvements in quality of life. She helps environmental organizations engage more women as members, activists, and donors, and she also encourages companies to green their products to appeal to more women consumers. A best-selling author, successful entrepreneur, sought-after public speaker, and long-time conservationist, Diane has more kudos to her name than we can list here. Be sure to learn more about her at her site.
23. Boomer Women Marketing Group: Mary Brown serves as a partner of JWT BOOM, a division of global ad agency JWT. She’s backed by more than twenty years’ experience in branding, most recently as president and founder of Imago Creative – the only marketing firm in the U.S. that specializes in marketing to women Baby Boomers. With author Carol Orsborn, Mary co-authored the book, BOOM: Marketing to the Ultimate Power Consumer – The Baby Boomer Woman. As a recognized authority on this demographic, Mary is invited to speak at many industry conferences. Her blog reveals her expertise in the Boomer Woman topic.
24. Conversation Agent: Valeria Maltoni is a frequent public speaker on brand marketing, customer service, and integrating social media tools in marketing programs to serve business strategy, and her blog is recognized among the world’s top marketing blogs. With a background in communications, customer dialogue, and brand management, Valeria has come to define modern business as a long and open conversation. Valeria is a Fast Company Expert blogger and a contributor to The Blog Herald and Marketing Profs Daily Fix. She also is a co-author of The Age of Conversation, an ebook collaboration and blog created by103 of today’s top marketing writers. She’s an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the American Marketing Association (AMA), the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia (WACA), and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
25. Diva Marketing Blog: Toby Bloomberg, president of Atlanta-based Bloomberg Marketing, has a passion for the Internet. She has over 15 years’ experience in marketing as well, and she uses her talents to build strategic marketing plans for large organizations such as the Olympic Organizing Committee and SCORE. She write articles for marketing publications, serves on boards of the American Marketing Association and the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association. In the spring of 2004, Toby launched Diva Marketing Blog, where she brings her southern grace to full play with comments such as “Y’all, marketing is not brain surgery. We should be willing to take a few risks.”
26. eMarketing Talk Show: Cindy Turrietta is an Internet marketing specialist and co-host of the eMarketing Talk Show. With a background in data and voice communications project management, Cindy founded her first Internet marketing business, CindyT.Consulting DBA Affordable Search Engine Ranking in 2002.In 2004, Cindy met Mike Purdy of World Talk Radio and became interested in developing an Internet talk show on the subject of Internet marketing. She asked Brooke Schumacher, founder of B Line Marketing, if she would be interested in co-hosting and they began to put together a plan. Todd Sarouhan joined the mix and they recorded their first eMarketing Talk Show episode on March 11, 2005.
27. In Women We Trust: Mary Clare Hunt is the author of In Women We Trust: A cultural shift to the softer side of business. And, she also created this blog to emphasize putting Purse String Theory into action. The core of this theory lies in action via “purses, peers and posts,” by turning women into business and climate change agents. With degrees in business and marketing, Mary has been self-employed most of her life. She also is key to Sustainable Products Corporation.
28. Kinetic Ideas: Wendy Maynard owns KinesisMarketing, an award-winning marketing firm that provides marketing strategies to multi-million dollar businesses. She started Go Marketing Mavin to help small business owners apply the same effective marketing strategies. Her blog, Kinetic Ideas, focuses on how small and medium-sized businesses can apply various off- and online marketing tactics.
29. Learned on Women: Andrea Learned began to research and write about more traditionally male-dominated industries in 2004, and this focus led her to hone in on subjects such as outdoor sports (which also is a personal passion), consumer electronics and the radio industry, to name a few. That same year, she co-authored the book, Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy – And How To Increase Your Share Of This Crucial Market with Lisa Johnson. Currently, Andrea spends time with her blog and she contributes regularly to HuffingtonPost.com. She’s also a contributor to publications such as MarketingProfs.com, Ad Map, The Advertiser and more.
30. Lip-sticking: There’s not enough room to write about Yvonne DiVita’s accomplishments and current interests here, but we’ll point you to her online presence(s) to give you a foothold into her world. Yvonne is the founder and president of Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC, an “author services” company that specializes in print-on-demand book publishing technology, professional business blog creation and social media. Lip-sticking is a blog with a focus on the women’s market. Her other blogs include the publishing blog, Aha!, WME Blogs, a blog about blogging; and WME Books, a blog about her authors’ books. Once a month she contributes a post on marketing to women to the online interactive marketing site, Adotas .
31. Live Path: Leigh Duncan-Durst is one woman that doesn’t fit easily into a category. She founded her business,Live Path, in 2005 after nineteen years in eCommerce, IT, usability, new technology, marketing, customer relationship management, operations and business strategy. In addition to numerous web awards, Leigh received Compaq’s 2003 Cutting Edge award for wireless development with the United States Senate. Today, Leigh is an active industry consultant, writer, speaker and teacher. But, the blog (and her business) is all about the customer experience – but you can expect much more from this Renaissance woman.
32. Marketing Profs Daily Fix: You’ll find plenty of women writing at this blog, but Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer, which means that she heads up “All Things Content” on the MarketingProfs Web site. She also blogs at The Huffington Post as well as at her personal blog, Annarchy. Prior to these stints, Ann co-founded Clickz.com, currently one of the largest resources for interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research and reference.
33. Marketing to Women Online: Holly Buchanan began her career as a copywriter and creative director, working for “over a thousand clients.” For the past four years she’s been working with best-selling authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg at Future Now, Inc. in the capacity of Senior VP of Client Services for this Web site conversion and persuasion architecture company. Her blog, which began as Marketing to Women Online under a different domain name has traveled with her to Future Now. This is Holly’s voice on marketing to and for women across the U.S.
34. Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter: This woman may not tell you what you want to hear, but she’ll tell you what you need to hear about strategic planning, business development, customer service and tactical marketing. Although Mary has held staff and management positions in business strategy, product management and marketing for several global corporations, she prefers to work with “Mom & Pop” businesses since her parents were entrepreneurs. She’s president of the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance and she entertains a global audience with her perspectives in her blog.
35. MooneyThinks: Kelly Mooney is a fanatic about study, creativity, and advocacy for the optimal customer experience. So, she plants herself firmly in the customer’s shoes to provide insights to her peers and clients. She is co-author of The Ten Demandments: Rules to Live By in the Age of the Demanding Customer, and she’s president and Chief Experience Officer for the interactive marketing and technology firm, Resource Interactive. Kelly is a frequent keynote lecturer and panelist for national conferences and she lectures at The Ohio State University.
36. re:invention:Kirsten Osolind is a former Fortune 500 marketing executive and is the found CEO of re:invention Marketing in Chicago, a nationally noted marketing and PR firm that helps companies market to working women. Her firm produced the 2004 report, “The Venture Funding for Women Entrepreneurs REport.” This research often is used as an industry barometer and it has inspired the Women Technology Cluster‘s Venture Awards programs. The re:invention blog is a format for this company to share how women-targeted marketing and PR can boost sales and profits.
37. Scrappy Marketing Solutions: Angie Pedersen likes small businesses, so she started her own – Scrappy Marketing Solutions – where she combines her pioneering expertise in scrapbooking with her knowledge in marketing and blogging. She dedicates her time to helping other small businesses get noticed, and she also gets to share her skills with scrapbooking along the way. Angie maintains two award-winning Web sites (ScrapYourStories.com and OneScrappySite.com), four blogs and a podcast. She also is the author of the books, The Book of Me: A Guide to Scrapbooking about Yourself, Growing Up Me: A Guide to Scrapbooking and Your Child’s Stories, and The Book of US: A Guide to Scrapbooking about Relationships .
38. The Power of the Purse: This blog shores the book publication by the same name, and focuses on how women influence purchases – hence, how businesses need to change their marketing to focus on women. The author, Fara Warner, has written about marketing, advertising, and consumer trends for more than fifteen years for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company. She is a recipient of a 2006 Diamond Award from Women in Communications for her work illuminating women’s issues in the media.
39. Wonderbranding: Michele Miller has devoted seven years to growing her own public relations firm in New York, and now she’s the “Wizard of Ads” partner at Wonderbranding, where she works with a powerful roster of small businesses across North America. She is an international speaker and a teacher on the topic of marketing to women. She’s the author of The Natural Advantages of Women, an audiobook that has been hailed for its concepts, principles, and new scientific information that explains how the female brain is “hardwired” for personal greatness. Her blog centers on marketing to women and has won awards from Marketing Sherpa and Forbes.com, and was featured in Seth Godin‘s Book, Bull Marketing. Michele also authors the marketing column for Inc.com.

Women in Design

Women who build Web sites, program those sites and who have kept up with the changes in this industry are numerous. This job has proven ideal for the stay-at-home mom, or for the woman who loves to meet a challenge with her artistic and creative skills and knowledge. The list below doesn’t touch the depth of talent available on the Web, but it does represent a broad range of services in design. Most of these women share their knowledge through their blogs.

40. Brass blogs: Michelle “Shelly” Cole, a visual artist, is the owner of Brass Blogs, and she describes her site and services as, “A small web design company run by a gal with a pair of brass ones.” A self-described perfectionist, Shelly began to code on a Commodore 64 hooked up to the family television, typing in DOS commands to make the computer chirp like a bird. She’s self-taught, following the example of a mother who loved to tear computers apart and put them back together again. Now, Shelly designs Web sites – specifically blogs – and she writes about her work and discoveries in her blog. She’s a member of Wise-Women and the Women’s Designer Group.
41. Brutally Succinct: Here is an honest woman. She states that she cannot draw, scripting language hurts her brain, she can barely hand code (“I can, trust me, I can”), and often is “totally devoid of design inspiration, ideas, or for that matter.” But, her blog and her business site belie her comments. Joni Mueller, in reality, is one half of Pixelita Designs, a Houston, Texas-based web design shop specializing in WordPress-, CMS Made Simple- and TextPattern-driven small business and professional web sites. Her partner is Belgrade, Serbia graphic artist Ivan Minic, who owns and operates Burek Forum, the largest Internet forum in Serbia.
42. Design*Sponge: Design*Sponge editor Grace Bonney works as a contributing editor at Domino Magazine and CRAFT magazine, and as a freelancer with top publications like House and Garden, New York Home, Food and Wine, Better Homes and Gardens, CITY Magazine, Time Out New York Kids, Archinect, The New York Post, Everyday with Rachael Ray and others. So, she’s well-steeped in the world of home and product design and her blog’s popularity validates her skills. She also runs a national series of meetups for women running design-based businesses called the D*S Biz Lady Series, local events designed to connect local designers and to provide them with free advice on the subjects of PR/marketing, legal concerns, business/financial decisions and wholesaling.
43. E.Webescapes: Lisa Sabin-Wilson literally wrote the book, WordPress for Dummies, so she’s got the corner on how to put a WordPress site together with ease. Her blog, which is an extension of her Web design business, talks about various sites she’s designed, including some issues she had to work around. It’s interesting to look over the color choices that Lisa uses for various Web site constructions. This is not a one-woman operation, as Lisa currently manages a staff of six employees. Lisa also maintains a personal blog, where admirers can follow her perspectives on personal life, culture and design.
44. Intuitive Designs: Naomi Niles is a Colorado lady who married and moved to Spain. She studied psychology until she realized she could make a living with her innate design talent and a studied application of Web skills. She’s especially interested in information architecture, project management, consulting, and marketing and she loves “to be a part of every step of each project we [she and her husband, Koldo Barroso] take on from beginning to end.” The Intuitive blog carries information for Web designers as well as for clients, with a personal touch and great illustrations that makes the blog a pleasure to read.
45. Jina Bolton: Jina is an interactive designer, artist and co-author of the book, The Art & Science of CSS. She currently works as a Web developer at Apple, and she has consulted for various agencies and organizations including the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. You can find musings and information about writing, art, design, markup and life in general at her blog. As she says, “I like making pretty websites, and then I like writing and speaking about it,” so you can find Jina at various conferences and as a contributor to places like Sitepoint.
46. LeaLea’s BlogBlog: Yes, you can say it all twice. But, there’s only one Lea Alcantara, the sole proprietor of Lealea Design who “is often hired to kill bad design.” Ms. Alcantara’s articles have appeared in Design-in-Flight, and her Art of Self-Branding series has been linked and well-received by several design blogs and publications. She was also interviewed in the October 2006 issue of Applied Arts magazine. Her thoughts and techniques regarding branding are also shared through her speaking engagements at conferences like the Future of Web Design 2007 in New York City and SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival in Austin, TX.
47. Molly: Who else but Molly E. Holzschlag? Molly is a well-known Web standards advocate, instructor, and author. She is group lead for the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and an invited expert to the HTML and GEO working groups at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Included among the thirty-plus books that she’s authored and co-authored is The Zen of CSS Design, a project that showcases the most progressive csszengarden.com designs. Visit her blog to learn about her perspective on Web design and development work and personal thoughts.
48. Nina’s Blog: Nina Meiers has over a decade of Web development, design and hosting experiences and she shares those experiences through XD Design. She’s focused on building a business around using the DotNetNuke open source Web application framework, and she was a core team member of the project for two years. Her international clientèle ranges from Fortune 500 companies to mom and pop operations who want to use this framework to build their online business. Her blog hones in on her DotNetNuke fixation, and she operates the largest ‘free’ community network outside the DotNetNuke website.
49. O-bleek: Katie Lee always had her heart set on becoming a veterinarian – but a veterinarian who loved to draw and paint. Although she’s the caretaker of four cats, two pugs, and a handful of parrots, her true love now is graphic design and the Web. Together with her programming husband, they make a formidable statement. Katie’s blog is filled with graphic design tips and personal and professional insights.
50. Personism: Jen Bekman is a gallery owner, a writer, a native New Yorker, the founding editor of the design blog Unbeige (MediaBistro) and the current author of the Personism blog. The latter writings are about photography, design, current events and issues. The success of Jen’s gallery depends a great deal upon her Internet experience that is integral to her PR and marketing strategy, and her fresh perspective on the art world. She’s especially known for her program that focuses on emerging artists and innovative group shows.
51. Snippets of Life: Karen Cheng has a BA in design and advertising, and she has worked as an art director, Web and graphic designer in Singapore and Australia. Now, she focuses on her blog, where she expounds on “parenting, children, art, design, food, fashion, blogging, photography, online shopping and most of all, finding inspiration and happiness in the simple, beautiful quirks of life.” Snippets of Life has won numerous national and international awards and has been listed in the Top 100 Australian Blogs and in the Top 50 Australian Women’s Blogs.
52. Standards for Life: Natalie Jost is a standards-conscious Web designer who has studied under the likes of Cameron Moll, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Dan Cederholm. Freelancing since 2004, Natalie also writes for Godbit and is a member of 9rules network. Her blog is a reflection of her skills, knowledge, and personal happenstances.
53. Veerle’s Blog: Veerle is a Web standards-compliant graphic and Web designer who lives in Belgium. She began her career in 1992 as a freelance designer. In 2000, she founded Duoh! together with Geert Leyseele. She currently is CEO of Duoh!, and her company has been working for the Library of Congress on a project called “The Learning Page.” Her blog is a popular online source for topics that range from XHTML to graphic design tips.
54. Lulu Says:  Lori Marshall is one part of Lulu Says, which is an extension of Lulu Wow design (Web design and SEO marketing for women), which is an extension of Unique Madness (Sarasota Web Designer). The latter site also sports a blog that focuses on Web site design and SEO. Lori is fixated on CSS, SEO and photography and stays up to speed on Photoshop techniques and a desire to help women with their businesses online.
55. Web Directions South: Maxine Sherrin is a “shy person” who avoids stages, but she likes to dot i’s and cross t’s as co-founder of this blog that brings Web design and development as well as the interesting aspects of online life to readers. Maxine and partner, John Allsopp, also produce a Web design and development conference called, “Web Directions,” where Web industry experts from around the world gather to educate, entertain and inspire their attendees. Their conferences are held annually in Sydney, Australia and in Vancouver, Canada.
56. Web Teacher: Virginia DeBolt wants to share everything she knows about HTML and CSS. So, she uses this blog to impart her knowledge. She’s the author of two books, Mastering Integrated HTML and CSS and Integrated HTML and CSS: A Smarter, Faster Way to Learn. She also manages a creative writing blog suitable for teachers who work with kids (First 50 Words), and she maintains a more personal site (but not much – we think her life is her work!) at Virginia DeBolt.

Social Media, Organizations, and Writing Skills

This category covers women who are involved with Web 2.0 projects, social networks that bring women together, and women who teach others how to write so they can use tools such as blogs, virtual worlds and other new media Web apps. This list touches on just a few of the many Web sites we discovered on this trip…

57. A Writer’s Edge: Georganna Hancock was born with a pencil in her mouth, and four decades or so later, she’s still scribbling. She’s a widely published writer who provides classes and coaching to beginners who want to write for magazines and journals, news mediums and more. Ms. Hancock’s blog reflects her coaching skills as she imparts information about every type of writing imaginable.
58. Beth’s Blog – How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Beth Kanter is a trainer, blogger, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use of blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging, screencasting, social networking sites, virtual worlds and more to support nonprofit organizations. She is an experienced coach to “digital immigrants” in the personal mastery of these tools. Her blog is a place to capture and share ideas about nonprofit technology, educational technology, adoption challenges, information design, visual thinking, creativity, ICT in the developing world, and much more.
59. Blogher: In 2005, Lisa Stone invited Elisa Camahort Page (see #83) to help her launch a conference for women who blog. Soon after, Elisa met Jory Des Jardins and invited her to join as well. Today, just three mere years later, BlogHer provides the number one community for and guide to blogs by women, via annual conferences, through their Web site, and an advertising network of 1,400 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates. BlogHer Inc. is majority-owned by the three co-founders and has backing from Venrock. As of July 20, 2007, the lists of blogs by women, organized by topic, are more than 13,000 blogs and growing daily. Every day, over sixty Blogher editors write daily guides to the hottest blogging by women in over twenty popular topics, from news and technology, to food, health and family.
60. Blogging Sueblimely: Although Sue has a background in Web design, social psychology and sociology, she found that she had more to say about blogging than anything else. When she discovered there were many other well respected blogs about blogging, she narrowed her focus to “help bloggers enjoy their blogging and to get the very most of it.” No matter if you’re a complete beginner or a seasoned pro, you can find some great information at this blog. Sue also provides more blogging tips, help, designs and templates at Sueblimely Blogspot.
61. Confident Writing: Joanna Young is a writing coach and freelance writer who shares her knowledge openly for anyone who wants to learn to improve writing for greater impact and to make a stronger connection. She will teach you to find your “voice” and give you confidence in your writing skills. Her blog is filled with writing tips and virtual coaching skills.
62. Emily Chang:: Emily is another one of those women who has accomplished so much that it’s difficult to know what to impart. She’s an award-winning strategic designer and co-founded Ideacodes.com, a Web consultancy located in San Francisco that focuses on “the design and user experience of next generation Websites, social applications and networked communities.” She is the creator of the Web 2.0 resource, eHub and eHub Interviews, and she also co-created Twitterverse.com, a word and tag mashup based upon Twitter’s public messages. Most recently, Emily presented PicoCool to the public, “a new site that’s dedicated to bringing you tiny and obscure content from the world of peer media, social networks and subcultures. Cool content from real people.” Emily’s blog covers all these social media and Web 2.0 topics and more. Be sure to hit the “about” link at her blog to learn more about this energetic and creative woman.
63. Groundswell: Charlene Li’s blog has been incorporated into this site, which also serves as a promotional tool for her new book by the same name. In this book, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff show how leading companies are gaining insights, generating revenues, saving money, and energizing their own customers through online social media. Charlene is one of the leading voices in social computing and Web 2.0 through her work over the past nine years as one of the most quoted analysts at technology and market research company Forrester Research. An accomplished and frequently requested public speaker, she often appears at industry events.
64. iWebis: Mona Weathers follows the Web wave with her focus mainly on social media networking, social media optimization, new developments in Web 2.0, online income sources and the blogging and the blogosphere in general. A self-taught guru, Mona started blogging in 2006 and hasn’t quit. She’s also one of the driving forces behind the new HerProBlog.com, which will be open for business in 2008.
65. Reach Group: Three women run The Reach Group, a boutique consultancy that provides “fresh insights and clear thinking about the Connected Generation.” The Reach Group began in 2000 with Reach Women, a respected source of market intelligence on female consumers. Founded by author and marketing expert Lisa Johnson, Reach Women helps leading brands understand and build relationships with women, primarily young professionals ages 18-35. In 2004, Reach Women conducted a groundbreaking, two-year qualitative study on connected women that revealed an emerging consumer group defined more by their relationship to technology and less by their gender. This company’s blog and podcasts reveal much about marketing, and more about how to reach consumers through new media.
66. Rethink Pink: Although this site focuses on marketing, the focus brings women together to talk about how the media and marketing efforts work for or against women. You can find current news, opinion, stats and more here written by both male and female bloggers and professionals in their fields. The link will take you to Rethink Pink’s home page, where you can click on any link to find various updated blog entries on specific topics.
67. Techipedia: Tamar Weinberg is a soial media fanatic, and she provides consulting in Internet marketing and blogs for numerous online publications. Her mark is most notably seen at Lifehacker, Search Engine Roundtable and Mashable. Tamar’s blog is filled with notes and perspectives about all online social media.
68. Women’s Voices for Change: This site offers news, commentary and opinion about and for women over age 40 with a focus on women’s “health, beauty, wisdom and vibrancy.” The current contributors include doctors, literary agents, presidents of nonprofit organizations and business founders. And, they’re all women. Women’s Voices for Change always seeks new contributions and active participation in this nonprofit organization’s activities.
69. Wonderful Web Women: Janet Beckers, an Internet marketer, artist, mother and a “wanna-be surfer” (as in water, not on the Internet), started Wonderful Web Women to share their stories with other entrepreneurial women. She states that all the women listed here have two things in common: They are generous with their knowledge and they genuinely care about helping other women succeed. This link will take you to the blog filled with news about Janet’s searches. The blog is part of the Wonderful Web Women site.
70. WonderWebby: Jasmin Tragas is a managing consultant at IBM in the arenas of learning, collaboration and knowledge. She’s worked in publishing and in new media since 1993. Her degrees are in animation and multimedia, but she focuses more these days on how to communicate and share knowledge through the use of social and virtual mediums.

Women in Business

We included women in “business,” because most of these women are in the business of doing businesses on the Web. Their blogs provide information about how they achieved their goals and how they met their failures. Other blogs provide information about certain industries and how they can help you succeed in business, no matter if it’s online or not.

71. Birth of a Startup: Alicia Navarro came up with the idea for Skimbit during a job interview with Google. She worked with an international team of designers and technologists to create this service aimed at making busy people’s lives a little simpler. Once that project was finished in 2006, Alicia created Skim-in-a-Box in 2007. This is a platform that can customize and create instances of the entire Skimbit tool for other portals or companies. Her blog is the “diary of an intrepid entrepreneur’s journey to build a start-up on her own.”
72. bizwomen: If you’re a business woman, you can use this growing and emerging online community to connect with other female executives and entrepreneurs. This site is a service of bizjournals, and online media division of American City Business Journals.
73. Black Business Women Online: Black Business Women Online is a blog designed for African American business women, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Take advantage of professional tools, including the Black Business Women Network and connect with a growing circle of successful women in business.
74. Build a Better [Business] Blog: Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman, otherwise known as “The Blog Squad,” bring their professional advice on with this blog. They operate a “blog crisis prevention program” that is dedicated to extreme blog makeovers. You’ll learn some no-nonsense how-to information that will make your blog stand out among your competition through their tips and help. Explore the site to learn more about their publications and speaking engagements as well.
75. FMWF: Although not a blog, the Financial Mail’s Women’s Forum is a fantastic resource to learn about the female movers and shakers in the U.K. With topics about how to start your business, financial matters and a mentoring program, this site has much to offer anyone who wants to learn as much as possible about going into business. Lisa Buckingham founded FMWF in early 2001, and it has grown to become one of the most important women’s networks in that country.
76. Gutzy Women: This link will take you to Debbie Ducic’s blog for her Gutzy Women Web site. The site supports women in business while “gently removing the fear of technology and online marketing.” The blog contains inspirational bits and tips for women in business, and most of the topics center on technical issues, new media and business. Debbie is a long-time business woman who has taken life by the horns. She’s willing to share any and all experiences to help young (and not-so-young) entrepreneurs to overcome their fears about going into or continuing their businesses.
77. Just Make Money Online: Ok. We will, with Shai Coggins’ help. Shai went online for the first time in 1997, and she was hooked on the ‘net from that point. She consolidated her many blogs into one blog project in 2005, and that’s how the AboutWeblogs.com project was born along with the help of twenty other female bloggers. From there, b5media approached her and her project became part of the b5media network. And, that’s also when Shai became the first female b5media partner as well. You can find Shai elsewhere on the Web, including her podcast show called Shai in 60 Seconds and her personal blog at ShaiCoggins.com.
78. Sparkplug CEO: Wendy Piersall started her blog as an experiment that complimented her home business. After three months, Wendy’s eMom’s at Home blog became its own full time job and she had to rethink her strategy about the business. Within two years, Wendy had a thriving business on her hands as she began to focus on at-home business owners (not just moms!) who wanted new answers to old questions about how to run a business from home. Her eMom’s blog has been transformed to Sparkplugging, and her personal blog (linked through her name above) has been renamed to Sparkplug CEO.
79. Startup Princess: Kelly King Anderson started this international network for women entrepreneurs to learn and support one another in 2006. As a mom who struggled to launch her own company, she wanted to meet and learn from other like-minded women. Startup Princess now is Kelly’s primary business, and she serves as managing director and site editor. Startup Princess has been recognized by Entrepreneur magazine and Costco Connection listed Startup Princess as a Top Resource for women entrepreneurs in May 2007. The link for this resource goes to the site’s home page, as you can find several blogs within this site’s resources from the links at the top of the page.
80. The Global Small Business Blog: Laurel Delaney is a successful entrepreneur, author, speaker and educator with more than 20 years of experience in global business. Also known as a “global guru” and the “world’s greatest borderbuster,” she founded The Global Small Business Blog (GSBB) for the purpose of helping entrepreneurs and small businesses expand their businesses internationally. She is the founder of Chicago-based LaurelDelaney.com and GlobeTrade.com, both created with a mission to promote and foster international entrepreneurship – a mission that she outlines at Squidoo.
81. Virtual Assistant – the Blog About Our Industry: When you go to this site and click on the “About” tab, you may chuckle at how Kathie M. Thomas lays her experience out in a list. Only a person who is a virtual assistant (or a person who has successfully worked with virtual assistants) will understand that significance. Lists are the way to make everything very, very clear, and Kathie’s thirteen years in this practice probably has made her a list maniac. She’s the founder of A Clayton’s Secretary (1994), and she pioneered the virtual assistant (VA) industry in Australia. She currently manages a network of virtual assistants with members in sixteen countries and is moderator for two well-established VA chat forums which have over 1,400 virtual assistant members collectively.
82. Work It Mom: Aliza Pilar Sherman is all over the Web and every women could use help from this award-winning author, speaker, web pioneer, e-marketing expert, freelance writer, television & radio producer and filmmaker. Ms. Sherman also can be defined by her connections to women, business and the Web. This is just one blog in her roster, which also includes Rants and Raves, Travelgirl, Moonbow Productions(film) and the Second Life Women’s Club among other sites. She also is co-founder of Webgrrls, a site that focuses on building Web sites and online resources for women to help them propel their personal and professional lives forward.
83. Worker Bees: Elisa Camahort founded Worker Bees, the marketing consulting business, in 2003 and has spent a lifetime in the creative arts, sixteen years in marketing and the “last few years being seduced by the online universe.” She’s been widely published and has extensive speaking experience, she conducts workshops and presentations about blogging, and is the co-founder of the Blogher organization (see #59). The reason we slotted Elisa for ‘women in business,’ is that the Worker Bee blog is geared toward any woman in any business, filled with tips, news, and insights from every angle you can imagine – politics, business and more. You also can find a vast resource of blogs here – all written by women – as the Blogher and Worker Bees blogs are listed in the right sidebar of the Worker Bees blog.
84. Working Solo: Leah Maclean has played various roles as an interface between “business reality and technical possibility” for over two decades. She’s helped large and small businesses to find an operational fit between their goals and their technological needs. She created this blog in 1999 in her desire to work with small businesses. Her focus is for women who have been “talked down to, kept in the dark, and ripped off with your design and technology,” and readers can find plenty of useful information here on how to handle tech and design problems on their own steam.

Women in Tech

According to many online reports, there is a shortage of women in IT. But, the lines often are blurred when it comes to IT, programming, code, etc. And, more women are using the Web as a means to communicate their technical goals, no matter their field. The following list provides a broad mix of CTOs, open source advocates, groups of women in technical fields and more.

85. AntonellaPavese.com: Antonella has gone from the farm (literally, with a degree in agriculture) to the research lab, where she became interested in the application of concepts and methods of cognitive psychology to the field of human-computer interaction and usability engineering. Her research focuses on how human attention and memory influence the control of action. In April 2002, she become the manager of the Web Usability Team. After 5 years in IT, she took a break and introduced user research and user-centered design to print design teams. Her blog seems to reflect her non-linear life with intelligent and witty commentary.
86. coffee.geek.nz: Coffee Geek AKA Brenda Wallace AKA Taniwhaiti on flickr lives by the saying, “whoever dies with the most toys wins.” She is the superhero of Open Source in Wellington, New Zealand (a mecca for geeks), where she’s spearheaded Super Happy DevHouse Aotearoa – a monthly hackathon where coders from across Wellington hang in one place and “get their code on,” according to wellingtonista.com. She works for Catalyst IT and plays with gadgets all day. She also “organizes stuff” for Linuxchix New Zealand and “looks after” the Linuxchix International site. She also built the Geek Speak site, a place where you can find female techies to speak at your events. Oh, yes, and you might find her at Girl Geek Dinners Wellington as well.
87. Cybergrrl: Nelly Yusupova is the CTO for The Cybergrrl Network of women’s online communities which is comprised of Cybergrrl.com, Webgrrls.com, and Femina.com (a directory of sites about and for women). She also founded Digitalwoman.com in 2004, a website development and Internet consultant practice.
88. Gina.Place.: Gina is a geek girl, a documentation specialist and a Quality Assurance Engineer at a computer peripherals company. She also writes and is an avid photographer. Her blog shows her interest in technology, but she also reveals that geek girls have issues just like any other woman.
89. Hawthorn Landings: Perhaps this blog should be Google Open Source Blog, as Leslie Hawthorn resides in both virtual realms. Leslie also manages the Google Summer of Code program and the Google Highly Open Participation Contest.
90. Lady Loves Tech: Karen is a student at the New York Institute of Photography and she also is a Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator w/Messaging and work as a Network Engineer. She created this technical blog to share her insights on tech, tech news and her passion for all things tech. She’s a self-described “total geek” who finds time to serve as an associate editor at GeekNewsCentral.com and to share her photography online.
91. Linuxchix: Deb Richardson started LinuxChix in 1999, because she was tired of seeing new users being browbeaten for asking “stupid” questions. So she started this group aimed at women who like Linux and for anyone who wants to support women in computing. This is an international group of Free Software users and developers.
92. misbehaving.net: misbehaving.net is a weblog about women and technology, written by the likes of Hilde Corneliussen (researcher at Humanistic Informatics at the University of Bergen in Norway), Caterina Fake (Flickr co-founder), Meg Hourihan, Fiona Romeo and more. Rather than a gadget or meandering blog, the writing here focuses on the “celebration of women’s contributions to computing.” Plus, the writers point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field.
93. NCWIT: NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology, a coalition of more than 100 corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits that work to increase women’s participation in information technology (IT). Girls represented just 15 percent of Advanced Placement computer science (CS) exam-takers in 2006; that’s the lowest female representation of any AP exam, so the NCWIT focuses on this market segment including teachers and students.
94. NTEN: Holly Ross has been combing through tech fads for more than five years at NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) as its Executive Director. She lines up Webinars, conferences and research that will help members use technology to make the world a better place. Previous to her stint at NTEN, Holly worked for social change at CALPIRG.
95. The Seattle Pixel: Gayle Laakmann, a software engineer, maintains this blog about women and tech (and “everything else”) and runs CareerCup and Seattle Anti-Freeze. CareerCup is a resource for job seekers and employers which features Microsoft Interview Questions, Amazon Interview Questions and questions from many other employers. Seattle Anti-Freeze is an organization that hosts large parties for young professionals who are located in the Seattle area.
96. Today’s Women and Technology: Kelley Caudle currently holds the title of Director of Intelligence Sys at S2 Corporation, she’s the CTO of One Universe Media and she’s the founder of Digital Operations. Formerly the C4ISR Chief Engineer on the GMD (Ground Based Midcourse Defense) program, she led the design and development of the largest single military system in the history of the U.S. with a $7 Billion per year budget. She was an initial military developer (1980s) that brought Internet Protocol (IP) communications over wireless systems, and the very first combined simulated and real components in the early 1990s. As author of Why Don’t You Just Shoot the Moose?, Kelley combines her love for the written word with her expertise for this blog.
97. Popgadget: Mia and Hoyum Kim founded this online blog and magazine aimed specifically at women and their interactions with tech gadgets. The topics covered are those traditionally seen in women’s magazines, such as health and fitness, beauty and fashion, home, family, and entertainment; however, Popgadget brings a unique focus on the gadgets and people that bring innovations to those aspects.
98. Tech Boutique: This blog is a shopping haven for any woman who loves gadgets. The blog, published in the U.K. is geared specifically toward women.
99. Tech From an E-booker’s Viewpoint: Ellen Hage is an eBook freak – she owns dozens of eBook devices and purchased her first eBook in 2000 to the tune of $200. She must be in seventh heaven now, as she has access to free eBooks and devices from around the world that are much less expensive. And, she writes about every one of them. Want to know how much this woman knows? Her Ph.D. dissertation was on eBook self-efficacy and usage levels across age and gender. How can you pass this up?
100. WITI: WITI began in 1989 as The International Network of Women in Technology and, in 2001, evolved into The WITI Professional Association, the nation’s leading trade association for tech-savvy women. Carolyn Leighton founded this organization to help women advance by providing access to – and support from – other professional women working in all sectors of technology. WITI’s reach is international, and its products and services include networking, career services, national and regional conferences and events, publications and more. This link will take you to the WITI podcasts, but you can find articles, the WITI Wire and more from this link.

But, who are the folks behind these dramatic changes? Who started hi5 Networks, one of the world’s largest social networks today? Who’s helping Dell become more environmentally friendly, and who’s the person behind Google’s financial success? We’ll tell you about these people and more, through the 25 most influential people in the Web hosting industry listed below.

There are, literally, hundreds of influential people in and around the Web hosting industry today, but we scoured the Web to find the most visible and remarkable people who are active in speaking engagements and/or in creative and substantial contributions to society as well as to their work. We looked to the most well-known and publicized companies like Cisco, Twitter and Facebook to discover who represented a driving force behind those companies. Below you will find owners, founders and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and Engineers, and the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) who are behind the Internet’s most innovative, productive, and astounding growth in Web hosting to users today.

Although the entries listed below are numbered, this does not mean that we value any one individual or company over another.

Owners/Founders/CEOs

Some of the following owners, founders and CEOs also wear many hats. Some serve as presidents of their companies, others are CTOs and others hide away in college labs s they continue to create and test new concepts. Some have sold their businesses and have moved on to other jobs. But, no matter what they do today, they have created companies and run businesses that have had a major impact on how the Web hosts its plethora of information.

1. Akash Garg: Garg is a co-founder of hi5 Networks, Inc. with Ramu Yalamanchi, and he is the company’s Chief Technology Officer. He helped launched hi5 Networks in 2003, and it is now one of the world’s largest social networks, ranked as a top twenty website globally and the number one social network in twenty-six countries across Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 80 million individuals in over 200 nations are registered for hi5, which is currently available in 23 languages. The company remains private, and Akash oversees its technology infrastructure and software development, has guided the design and implementation of a highly scalable, highly available platform using a combination of open source and homegrown technologies on low-cost Linux machines, and originally developed the core product concepts and underlying technology that has helped to fuel the rapid growth of the site and its services. hi5 Networks is a key member of Google’s Open Social platform alliance. Akash gained his entrepreneurial spirit at Reactivity ( acquired by Cisco in 2007) as he assisted early-stage startups with technology strategy and direction, as well as architecting and implementing key portions of Reactivity’s flagship product. He graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Stanford University.
2. Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield: This husband and wife team founded Flickr, a Web 2.0 photo app, in February 2004 after three months of incubation. Caterina and Stewart started Flickr with seed money from family, friends and angel investors, and within thirteen months it blossomed so rapidly that Yahoo! took notice and purchased it for nearly $30 million in March 2005. This couple brought a new meaning to the words, “start-up,” and hope to those who had lost faith in the Internet as a tool for monetization after the dot-com boom and bust. Additionally, they brought a new face to the Web with their “2.0″ community-building photography applications that were an immediate global hit. Butterfield now serves as a Director of Product Management at Yahoo! Caterina currently sits on the board of Etsy, and she runs the Technology Development group at Yahoo!, known for its Hack Yahoo! program, and Brickhouse, a rapid development environment for new products.
3. Damian Black: Mr. Black began his career with HPLabs Europe over twenty-four years ago, where he ran a Europe-wide software and services business unit specializing in Corba/DCE development tools and in object/expert systems technology. Upon moving to the U.S. in 1996, Black pioneered a new market category called IP Mediation, software to process Internet service data in real-time for the telecom marketplace. He then joined XACCT, where as VP Product Management he helped XACCT achieve market leadership in IP Mediation to the point where the company was acquired by Amdocs in 2004. Damian was also VP Business Development and VP Americas Sales for Followap, market leader in real-time Presence servers and mobile messaging (now part of NeuStar, Inc.). Currently, Mr. Black serves as President and CEO of SQLstream, a company that was formed in December 2002 to provide customers with a better way to integrate applications and data. Their Relational Asynchronous Messaging (RAM) and patented middleware implementing RAM, called SQLstream, uses SQL to specify all data integration logic declaratively. Although SQLstream is a private company, their revolutionary technology has grasped investors’ imaginations. SQLstream’s RAMMS (RAM Management System) and related solutions are currently being bid on multi-million dollar data integration projects by large publicly traded Systems Integrators.
4. Danny Kolke: Danny Kolke founded Etelos in May 1999 and, in the process, revolutionized the way Web-based applications are developed, distributed and consumed to empower organizations to use Web-based applications to achieve their goals.The underlying concepts are embodied in the platform through the Etelos Application Server (EAS), English Application Scripting Engine (EASE), Apps on a Plane (AOP) and the Etelos Marketplace as well as other products such as Etelos CRM ™ for Google Apps and Etelos Server for Google Apps. He also serves as this company’s CTO. In addition to frequent speaking engagements, Kolke is a regular contributor to industry publications on CRM, healthcare and the small business market. He is the managing editor of Etelos Developer Magazine, which is published to 15,000 web-development firms across the U.S. and Canada. He also is an accomplished and published jazz pianist and artist.
5. Dr. Mendel Rosenblum: Dr. Rosenblum is the co-founder and Chief Scientist of VMWare, a global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the data center that was formed in 1998 and sold to EMC in 2003. The other co-founders were his wife, two graduate students and a friend from Berkeley. What the observer may not know is that this group revived virtualization on the Intel platform, making this power affordable beyond the mainframe. With VMWare, virtualized servers can be moved from one machine to another like files, delivering capacity on demand, aiding in disaster recovery and simplifying software migrations and maintenance. With 2007 revenues of $1.33 billion, more than 100,000 customers, nearly 14,000 partners and over 6,000 employees, VMware is one of the fastest-growing public software companies. Rosenblum is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he leads a group focused on operating systems research. Together with his students, he developed the Hive operating system, the SimOS machine simulator and the Disco virtual machine monitor. In 2002, he received the ACM SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award for his creativity, innovation and vision in operating systems research. He holds a doctorate and master’s degree in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Virginia.
6. Jack Dorsey: Jack Dorsey is Twitter‘s CEO and co-founder along with Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and possibly a few other people. But, according to Stone, Dorsey was the one with the idea for their free service for people to communicate through the exchange of quick and short (140 words or less [PDF]) answers to the question, “What are you doing?” According to Stone, Dorsey grew up in St. Louis and became obsessed with dispatch routing at age fourteen. He wrote open source software for dispatching, which still is used by many taxi cab companies today. From this idea, he wondered if a service could be built from instant messaging. He went to Obvious (home to Twitter and Odeo), and Odeo built a prototype in two weeks and “everyone started using it” in May 2006. Never expecting Twitter to take off like it did, this company continues to dumbfound many experts who wonder how Twitter stays alive both financially and technically. Using Ruby on Rails at Joyent, this company scaled exponentially with complaints about downtime gathering steam in 2007 (A recent 2008 report at Royal Pingdom shows Twitter takes the top spot for downtime, but — c’mon folks — a free service with 98+ percent uptime?). But, it appears that Twitter moved from Joyent to at NTT America, a move that was announced on May 7 this year. Still, onlookers and the media are drawn to the Twitter turmoil that continues to plague this start-up. You can follow Jack’s Tweet’s (a Twitter posting) and visit his Web site. Both tools provide heavy clues as to the unconventional demeanor of this company’s co-founder and CEO. If this isn’t an influence, what is? It’s a whole new way to communicate.
7. James Q. Crowe: Think of the largest communications and Internet backbones in the world, and you might think about Level 3 Communications, Inc. Level 3 offers integrated, flexible and reliable communications services to national and global service providers as well as Federal government agencies. They just launched a global content delivery platform that helps companies deliver content more effectively, and eighteen of the world’s top twenty telecom carriers rely on this company for its global fiber network to deliver end-to-end communications solutions. Shortly before Mr. Crowe came on board with this company, he served as chairman of WorldCom following its $14.3 billion merger with MFS Communications Company (MFS) in 1996. Mr. Crowe founded MFS and served as its President and CEO from the time he took this company public in 1992 to the merger date, when he served as Chairman of the Board of WorldCom from January 1997 until July 1997. Mr. Crowe then assumed leadership as President and CEO of Level 3 in 1997, when it was a diverse group of companies. He then reshaped these holdings into a single company centrally focused on communications and information services. In 2005, Mr. Crowe won an election citation from the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to the development and deployment of Internet-based communication technologies and services.
8. Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales: Wales was instrumental in creating Wikipedia, a free open content encyclopedia and the largest encyclopedia in the world, in 2001. This project paved the way for Web creativity, collaboration and sharing among users. Wales became Wikipedia’s spokesperson and the face of this project, a role that caused Time magazine to name him to its 2006 list of the world’s most influential people and to its 2008 online 100 Finalists in the world’s most influential people. But, Wales public role and the public nature of his wiki creations has caused sensation and controversy between Wales and his critics. With that said, this project ws so large that it had colleges revisiting how individuals used citations and reference materials for their research projects.
9. Mena Grabowski Trott: Yes, WordPress is an incredible open source application for bloggers, but Mena Trott has a huge place in the story about their competition. She and her husband, Benjamin Trott, started Six Apart during a period of unemployment in 2001. That business and her blog, dollarshort.org, provided the impetus for the creation of the Movable Type publishing platform, TypePad weblogging service and, after an acquisition in January 2005, LiveJournal, an online community organized around personal journals. Named one of Fast Company’s “Fast 50 for 2004” and PC Magazine’s “People of the Year” for 2004, Mena speaks regularly at industry conferences such as Supernova, AdTech, DEMO 2004 and The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital.” Mena can be found writing about weblogging and Six Apart at Mena’s Corner.
10. Tony Lucas: Mr. Lucas founded XCalibre Communications Ltd., a managed hosting company located in the U.K., while still a student at college in 1997. He quietly built this business for a decade until he made a splash with his computing infrastructure, FlexiScale, at the Future of Web Apps (FoWA) expo in London on October 3, 2007. Flexiscale is a pay-as-you-go storage and bandwidth solution, where high quality low contention virtual dedicated servers provide customers with instant provisioning and automatic scaling – and that competes directly with Amazon EC2. Lucas has described himself as an entrepreneurial evangelist who is “more interested in doing something disruptive and exciting that helps business than in chasing money,” and the idea for FlexiScale came to him in 2004 when his customers’ Web sites were spiking in traffic and dropping out of site in the process. Within one week following FoWA, customers fulfilled FlexiScale’s initial server build out, and the demand for this service continues to grow. According to the FlexiScale blog, XCalibre’s business grew from a traditional Web hosting service in the U.K. to an international company from October 2007 to March 2008, and this expansion has shoved Lucas into the limelight as he travels throughout Europe and the U.S. to promote his new product.

CTOs/Engineering

The following influential people have driven the machines, the software and the technology behind Web hosting, the Internet, and user-experience on the Web today. While this is no means a “end-all” list of influential CTOs and Web engineers, it’s a list filled with individuals who we feel are in touch with the current market trends and conditions. Many of the following ‘techies’ speak at public events, are inventors and have contributed significantly to their fields of hardware and software and to the general public with their intellect and creativity.

11. Adam D’Angelo: Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz started the social networking site, Facebook, from their dorm room in 2004. But, Adam D’Angelo – as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Facebook – is responsible for keeping Facebook up and running. Mr. D’Angelo attended high school with Zuckerberg and moved to Palo Alto to help him relaunch Thefacebook.com as Facebook. Now, he leads the Platform Development and Data teams and oversees new product design and architecture. In addition, he guides the site’s infrastructure to ensure expansion and scalability. Previously, Mr. D’Angelo worked as Facebook’s Director of Data Mining and Distributed Systems for ad targeting, collaborative filtering and spam detection. In 2005, Mr. D’Angelo was named one of the top 24 finalists in the international Topcoder Collegiate Challenge, a battle that pits some of the world’s top international collegiate coders against each other to determine their ability to design and implement complex algorithms in a timed environment. Mr. D’Angelo holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the California Institute of Technology.
12. Brendan Eich: Ever wonder who created the JavaScript programming language? Look no further than Brendan Eich, current CTO for Mozilla Corporation, home to the open source Firefox browser. Previous to Mozilla, Brendan worked at Netscape Communications Corporation in April 1995, working on JavaScript (originally called Mocha, then called LiveScript) for the Netscape Navigator web browser. Brendan’s outstanding accomplishments earned him the Web Innovator of the Year award from c|net’s Builder.com in April 1998. He then helped found mozilla.org in early 1998, serving as chief architect. When AOL shut down the Netscape browser unit in July 2003, Eich helped spin out the Mozilla Foundation. Eich received his bachelor’s degree in math and computer science at Santa Clara University, and his master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. You can gain a perspective on Eich through his blog.
13. Christophe Bisciglia: Bisciglia probably has the most recognizable face in the Google-sphere, with his long wavy hair, his lean and angular build, and a smile that could melt an iceberg. He’s become a poster boy for his employer since his idea to teach cloud-computing to students at his alma mater, the University of Washington, was initiated in 2007. Now, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Tsinghua University in Beijing have picked up on the idea, offering similar classes to their students, and Bisciglia has since worked out comparable deals with Berkeley and Stanford.What gives Bisciglia the authority to teach Google’s Academic Cloud Computing Initiative (ACCI)? Four years at Google and his current position as Senior Software Engineer is one answer. Additionally, he holds multiple patents related to search quality and has co-authored an academic paper on undergraduate distributed computing education. Most recently he worked with the National Science Foundation to extend access to the ACCI to the broader research community. Bisciglia, who was born in 1980, earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Washington.
14. Dr. Albert A. Esser [PDF]: Dr. Esser is Dell‘s Vice President for data center infrastructure, where he is responsible for enhancing Dell’s enterprise-class IT solutions by sharing insights gained from customers with the company’s Server, Storage, Data Center Solutions and Services teams. Although only with Dell since September 2007, Dr. Esser already has created an impact on Dell’s movement toward a greener environment through energy-efficient improvements in data centers. Prior to Dell, Albert was the CTO and Vice President of Technology at Emerson Network Power, where he was responsible for Global Product Roadmap and Technology Development. He has been honored with many awards, among them the GE 6 Sigma Certified Master Black Belt, GE’s Whiteney Award, and GE’s Dushman Award. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wisconsin and holds a position on the Advisory Council at the University of Minnesota. His degrees include a Diplom Electrical Engineer from the University of Aachen, Germany, and a Dr.-Ing. Electrical Engineering from the University of Aachen. He holds 13 U.S. patents.
15. Dr. Werner Vogels: The link for Dr. Vogels will take you to his blog, “All Things Distributed.” This is a fitting title for a blog written by theVice President and Chief Technology Officer at Amazon.com. Dr. Vogel is responsible for driving the company’s technology vision, which is to continuously enhance the innovation on behalf of Amazon’s customers at a global scale. He joined Amazon in September of 2004 as the Director of Systems Research, then was named Chief Technology Officer in January of 2005 and Vice President, World-wide Architecture in March of that year. Over the past years, Vogels has helped Amazon grow from one of the largest online retailers with more than 55 million active customer accounts into a platform on which more than one million active retail partners worldwide do business. Dr. Vogels once was a research scientist at Cornell University, where he was a principal investigator in several research projects that targeted the scalability and robustness of mission-critical enterprise computing systems. Dr. Vogels holds a Ph.D. from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has authored close to 80 articles for journals and conferences, most of them on distributed systems technologies for enterprise computing. He is the only executive apart from Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos to speak publicly on behalf of Amazon.com.
16. Greg M. Papadopoulos: Sun Microsystems introduces their Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development with the heading, “Not only an innovator and a visionary, but a rocket scientist too.” Mr. Papadopoulos directs the company’s approximate $2B in R&D portfolio and manages Sun’s technology decisions and architecture. His team leads Sun Labs, the DARPA High Performance Computing System program, global engineering architecture and advanced development programs, and he is the creator and lead proponent for Redshift, a theory on whether technology markets are over or under-served by Moore’s Law. Before joining Sun in 1994, Papadopoulos was senior architect and director of product strategy for Thinking Machines, where he led the design of the CM6 massively parallel supercomputer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in systems science from the University of California at San Diego, as well as master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. Papadopoulos was an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, and he also worked as a development engineer at Hewlett-Packard and Honeywell, where he designed flight-control systems for Boeing jetliners. He co-founded three companies: PictureTel (video conferencing), Ergo (high-end PCs) and Exa Corporation (computational fluid dynamics). He is chairman of the board for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and as a member of the President’s Board on Science and Innovation at the University of California.
17. Harald Prokop: Prior to joining Akamai in 1999, Mr. Prokop worked on high-performance and parallel computing at the MIT laboratory for Computer Science. His master’s thesis, “Cache-Oblivious Algorithms,” resulted in an active new research branch of algorithm theory that includes the efficient use of memory hierarchies. From that point, Mr. Prokop joined Akamai as one of this company’s first engineers, and has held various leadership roles within Akamai’s Engineering department. Along the way, he became one of the architects of Akamai’s proprietary system for Internet performance measurement and traffic management, a key component of the company’s services. He designed the development and testing process that brings Akamai services to market. In 2004, he received Akamai’s highest employee recognition, the Daniel Lewin Award, for his outstanding technical contributions to the company. Currently, Mr. Prokop serves as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Akamai. He manages the company’s engineering efforts and is responsible for building the services that run on Akamai’s globally distributed computing platform.
18. Padmasree Warrior: Working Woman magazine honored Warrior with its “Women Elevating Science and Technology” award in 2001, when she was an employee at Motorola, Inc. Two years later, in 2003, Warrior became Motorola’s CTO and that company’s first female executive vice president. On December 4, 2007 she left Motorola to become CTO at Cisco Systems, where she coined the term, “Platform Disturbia,” an “anecdotal way of describing the fragmentation in the mobile industry [that] can be a great opportunity for developers, but brings with it significant challenges.” In February 2008, Warrior was named by Pink Magazine as one of the top 15 most influential women driving innovation (and revenue) in corporate America. Warrior received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She holds masters in chemical engineering from Cornell University and serves as an advisory board member at both schools. In 2007 she was honored to receive Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa from New York’s Polytechnic University.
19. Patrick J. Kerpan: This link will take you to Kerpan’s blog, where he writes about “thoughts on software – especially trends that are driving the world of Open Development.” Kerpan is Chief Technology Officer for Cohesive Flexible Technologies (CohesiveFT), the provider for Elastic Server On-Demand that enables customers to build and manage applications for virtualized infrastructure. In this role, Kerpan is responsible for directing product and technology strategy. Kerpan was one of CohesiveFT’s founders in 2006. Previous to his role at CohesiveFT, Kerpan founded Bedouin Inc. until its acquisition by Borland, Inc. in 2000. He then served as Borland’s former CTO and General Manger of one of that company’s most successful business units. Borland’s acquisition of Bedouin Inc. led to the growth of ALM products in the Borland portfolio, including Kerpan’s lead in the acquisition of the public company Starbase. Before Bedouin, Inc., Kerpan was managing director of derivatives technology for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, responsible for derivatives technology worldwide. Before that, he served as executive director of financial engineering for Swiss Bank Corporation, where he was responsible for developing global portfolio management and risk analysis systems. Kerpan also served as lead developer for O’Connor and Associates artificial intelligence group.
20. Steve Chen: Chen currently is CTO of YouTube, a video-sharing site owned by Google and one that he helped co-found in 2005. Before YouTube, Steve worked at PayPal, where he met Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Chen moved on to work at Facebook, but left that position when he and Hurley and Karim launched YouTube. They created and fostered a community around sharing video and in the process unleashed a revolutionary platform for creative expression. One year later, Chen was named one of the “50 people who matter now” in business by Business 2.0. Just months later, on October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion. Chen also received 625,366 shares of Google and an additional 68,721 shares in a trust as part of the sale. Chen is a graduate of the Illinois Math and Science Academy and college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

CMO/Marketing

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) may spell “sales” to many people; but in the Web and Internet industry those CMOs may surprise many people with the many hats they wear. Take Dr. Schrader below, for instance, who can practice teaching computers to discern human emotion, yet who also can lend his expertise to Teradata’s marketing division. And, then there’s Seth Godin, who seemed to come out of nowhere to take the marketing world by storm with his “Purple Cow (the remarkable product).” This category, while slim, holds little boredom.

21. Dr. David K. Schrader: Dr. Dave Schrader, lead Strategist and one of the Marketing Directors for the Teradata Applications Solutions group, started his career with a PhD in hand from Purdue University in 1983. He made his mark early at Servio Corporation as the Engineering Manager for the GemStone object-oriented database product (now business), then traveled to a large but now defunct industry giant, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He then dove into another startup (Teradata), which was acquired by NCR, part of the AT&T conglomerate. He now focuses on market micro-segmentations, preliminary business plans, briefings for early adopting customers, identification of new application business opportunities and speeches at MBA programs nationwide. He has been instrumental in the development of several of Teradata’s offers, and was the marketing liaison for the Teradata-BroadVision relationship to foster Moment-to-Moment Marketing. Dr. Schrader also was responsible for the Active Enterprise Intelligence initiative, intended to help customers derive more value from their Enterprise Data Warehouses by writing new applications and applets for front-line employees and systems. He is a trustee of the Marketing Sciences Institute, and is a board member of TierFleet, a data appliance startup company, and has published several technical papers and holds 2 patents. Finally, in an attempt to give consumers a better banking experience, Schrader is teaching ATMs to discern emotions.
22. Geva Perry: This link will take you to Geva Perry’s blog, where he writes about “cloud computing, grids, middleware, everything-as-a-service and more.” As Chief Marketing Officer at GigaSpaces Technologies, Geva Perry is responsible for all marketing and business development activities at GigaSpaces, including strategy and positioning, product marketing, corporate marketing and strategic alliances. His first mission when hired by GigaSpace in 2004 was to take this company’s linear scalability to the “guys with the most pain” on Wall Street, where very millisecond shaved from latency issues made a difference. GigaSpaces walked off with six of the top ten U.S. investment banks as customers, as well as large exchanges such as NYSE and CME, and large European banks such as Monte Paschi, Societe Generale and Commerzbank among others. Perry’s experiences include his role as Chief Operating Officer at SeeRun, a developer of real-time business activity monitoring software, co-founder and general partner of Synergy Ventures, a New York-based venture capital fund focused on enterprise software start-ups, and employment at Earthweb, an online publisher of content for the developer community, before, during and after its highly successful IPO in 1998. Geva received a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew University. He holds an MS from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
23. Lew Moorman: As Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Rackspace Managed Hosting, Lew Moorman is instrumental in driving strategic planning, product development and new business initiatives. Moorman joined Rackspace – a provider of advanced Linux-based Internet hosting services targeted to small- to medium-sized enterprises worldwide – in 2000, one year after its initial launch, and has served a variety of strategy and marketing roles throughout the company’s expansion. Although Moorman recognizes that uptime is valuable to clients, he’s a firm believer in customer service. Moorman’s strategy is to provide quality technical service 24/7 through highly qualified technicians, which means that Rackspace has cut the cord on their voicemail. Rackspace always has been a strong Linux and NT shop, but Moorman plans to expand into Sun Microsystem offerings. Before joining Rackspace, Moorman held several positions at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, advising a variety of high technology clients on critical strategic issues. Moorman received a B.A. from Duke University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
24. Omid Kordestani: Just about any Google-aholic can rattle off the names of Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. some even can tell you the name of Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering, Bill Coughran, Jr. But, few can admit to knowing Omid Kordestani, Google’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Business Development. Omid works behind the scenes to generate worldwide revenue as well as the cash needed for day-to-day operations of the company’s sales organization. As Google’s “business founder,” Omid led the development and implementation of the company’s initial business model. Since joining in May of 1999, he has brought Google to profitability in record time, generating more than $10 billion in revenue in 2006. Previous to Google, Omid held key positions at several start-ups including Internet pioneer Netscape Communications. He grew Netscape’s online revenue from an annual run-rate of $88 million to more than $200 million in 18 months. Prior to Netscape, he held positions in marketing, product management, and business development at The 3DO Company, Go Corporation and Hewlett-Packard. Omid received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from San Jose State University (where he gave the commencement address in 2007). Kordestani was named one of Time‘s “100 People who shape our world” in the May 8, 2006 issue. Forbes also listed him as one of America’s 400 richest Americans in 2006.
25. Seth Godin: It takes some guts to call yourself an “agent of change,” but Godin has managed to pull it off thus far. An author of ten best-selling books, Godin focuses on how people can change the way that people think about marketing, change and work.Seth recently was chosen as one of “21 Speakers for the Next Century” by Successful Meetings, and he has become a popular speaker at many Web-based companies. He previously was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry’s leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998. As a part of the sale to Yahoo!, Godin became their Vice-President of Permission Marketing. For a period of time, Godin served as a columnist for Fast Company and in late 2005, Godin founded the “recommendation network” website Squidoo. He holds an MBA from Stanford University, and was called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week.