We love blogging. And we love the WordPress blogging platform. But we are very much not in love with most website hosts WordPress bloggers use.
Like it or not, a website host is a necessity if you want to run a WordPress blog with your own domain name (which we strongly suggest†). It’s a hyper-competitive business, website hosting is. To cut costs most hosting companies skimp on service and reduce their reliability standards. How do hosting companies get away with that? you may wonder. Because most customers make their choice of host by looking at the price and nothing else.
Do not be one of those customers.
The difference between a low and high quality host is the difference between your WordPress blog being down a few minutes per month or being down for hours (or days!). It’s the difference between your blog loading quickly or loading slowly. It’s the difference difference being able to get help with a hosting issue and not.
Here’s our overview of sharing hosting in general and our suggested hosts in particular. Short on time? Skip head to our conclusions:
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Vacation home rentals are one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. And why not? Compared to staying in a hotel, vacation homes can provide more spacious and personality-filled accommodations for around the same price. That’s particularly true if you are traveling with a large group.
For the past several months, Spot Cool Stuff has been scouring the internet for websites that let you book temporary vacation homes. We checked out out more than 60. Here’s a review of our six favorites:
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If you are reading this post, we presume you are single and likely nervous about entering the world of online dating. To you we say: Go for it!
Think of it this way: If you were looking for a job, you’d conduct at least part of your search online, no? When shopping for a creative gift, checking out tomorrow’s weather forecast or looking for a used car you’d search online. So why not when looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend?
Meeting mates online is not going mainstream. It is mainstream. Of all the people who got married in the United States in 2012, 1 out of every 5 met online. (It’s probably more than that in 2013). More than twice as many marriages occurred between people who met on an online dating site than between those who met in bars, clubs and social events combined! And such online dating success spans across demographic groups—targeted niche sites like eHarmony senior online dating have hugely helped singles get back into the dating game later in life.
So, go for it! And start by choosing the online dating site that will work best for you.
There are literally thousands of dating websites to choose from. They break down into roughly two groups: general dating websites, those joined by a relatively large and diverse cross section of people, and niche dating websites, geared towards a specific audience.
You can see our picks for the best niche dating websites clicking to this review. In this post we’ll look at the general websites. Spot Cool Stuff has tried out dozens of them. Below is our description of the ones we like best. Check out the full reviews or, if you are the impatient sort, skip ahead to our conclusions:
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Almost every printer in the world prints business cards. Many will print business cards cheaply. And if you want to print your own business cards all you need are some blank ones and a good quality printer.
But what if you want a business card that will really make you stand out? And — further — what if you aren’t a graphic designer and if you don’t want these business cards to cost a small fortune? Fortunately, there are a handful of cool websites where you can create unusual business cards that will wow that potential client or business partner — and do so inexpensively.
A review of Spot Cool Stuff’s six favorites:
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Everyone has had awkward family moments (and many of us still do). Not everyone has had their awkward family moments photographed, posted online, published in a book and mocked in a board game. You’ll find the lucky (or unlucky) few who have on the humorous website Awkward Family Photos.
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Almost everyone knows Amazon.com for its bargain deals on books and electronics. Amazon is also a good source for discount groceries. We like their DRM-free MP3 store (even more than iTunes). And we love their Amazon Kindle. But Amazon also has a surprisingly large selection items that defy categorization, from the odd to the downright wacky.
Here’s our look at some of the weirdest items for sale on Amazon and the solution they provide to some of life’s most common problems:
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We spend nearly every day searching out cool websites. And nearly every day we are amazing at the possibilities the world wide web offers.
Our favorite website review posts from the past year:
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