I’m sure a lot of you who read this blog have your own personal horror stories about web hosting companies. I’ve dealt with so many different web hosting providers over the years that I could probably sit down and write a dozen reviews of their services and pros and cons for you.

Luckily, thanks to Web Hosting Geeks, I don’t have to take the time to do that. This site is overflowing with unbiased web hosting reviews for all sorts of different providers. Anyone looking to switch hosts or just get started in the web development game might want to check the site out.

The most convenient part of their site, in my eyes, is the break down of hosts by theme or category. They’ve taken all of the hosts in their system and selected the best for such things as: blogs, forums, ecommerce, etc. There is also a breakdown for Unix and Windows hosting.

Web Hosting Geeks provides more than reviews though. They also have an entire section of their site dedicated to web hosting articles. This is a great resource for anyone struggling with picking a host, managing their current host or those just interested in how web hosting really works. In addition to host related topics, there are articles that cover standard web development subjects such as traffic, SEO and domain names.

Picking the right web host is sometimes a hit or miss proposition especially if you’re just starting out. It’s important that you take the time to do proper research before picking a web host. Remember that going with the cheapest option isn’t always the best idea and that many people have probably gone before you and have advice to give. That’s what makes a site like Web Hosting Geeks is so valuable. You can use it to learn from others’ mistakes and make the right choice for yourself.

When I first started getting involved in freelance web development the requests for building online stores were few and far between. In recent years this has totally changed, as people want more and more to begin selling their products and services online. This trend has increased just as quickly as people’s concerns and interests in Search Engine Optimisation.

I’ve used my fair share of Ecommerce Software in this time and, really, they’re all about the same. They come in two flavors: hosted and self-hosted. My preference is to always go with the hosted solution because while the costs are usually higher the headaches are few and far between. A lot of the hosted solutions also have really excellent hooks that let you tie into your own CMS or scripts.

The one big knock on hosted shopping cart packages is that you lose almost all control over the look and feel of the interface. This is unfortunate because the best Web Design firms out there didn’t exactly build most of these carts. This is where the hooks they provide or so important. With the right hooks and programming you can do as much as you can on your side of the equation to offset what’s lacking on the hosted side.

Yesterday, Erik Karey released phpBayAds, his eBay ads script, for free to the public. Think of phpBayAds as a self-hosted version of the old AuctionAds program. Erik was kind enough to answer some questions I had about his new release.

With the wild popularity of BANS and phpBay Pro these days it seems like you’ve hit a gap in the marketplace for eBay affiliates. Can you take a minute to describe what phpBayAds does for those that haven’t heard yet and who is most likely to benefit from using it?

I’ve noticed the increase in the popularity of the eBay affiliate program for awhile now and I’ve even started using phpBayPro on a few websites of mine and found great success with it. I also noticed a lot of press on AuctionAds (now ShoppingAds) and it’s shortcomings.

All of these things got me thinking about what type of products I could develop to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the eBay affiliate program which eventually led me to creating phpBayAds.

phpBayAds lets you create adsense-styled ads that feature images and links to eBay auction products using your own eBay Affiliate ID. So when a user clicks on the ad and either makes a purchase or signs up for eBay you get the commissions.

Although results will vary from site to site, I think phpBayAds can benefit every webmaster who tries it as it adds an additional source of income to your websites. phpBayAds are fully customizable from the color of the links to the color of the border to the size of the ads and can be made to blend well with any and all websites.

What was some of your reasoning behind releasing phpBayAds for free?

When I initially set out to release phpBayAds I planned to sell it for somewhere around $20. However when I got to thinking about it I realized that at least at the start of my development that releasing it for free and getting the largest amount of users using the script is to my benefit.

I truly want this script to succeed and to do that I need people to use it and I need people to provide me with feedback. I’m hoping that as the script gets more exposure and as I add features that I may release a low cost Pro version which would include more features and functionality.

What are some of the benefits/disadvantages to you as a developer in making people run the script on their own server?

I think the main advantage of being able to run this script on your own server is that you are in full control. Your ads will always be running as long as your own web host is running. You don’t have to rely on any 3rd party website.

In the future as phpBayAds grows in popularity I would like to offer a hosted version for a low monthly cost which would let those less technical users also use the script.

What’s in store for future releases?

I have a number of features that I’d love to add as long as phpBayAds grows in popularity.

One major feature that I plan to add in the near future is reporting. I want to be able to track all of the clicks going through the ads, show what keywords are performing, what ad sizes are working best and present it all in one useful control panel.

As I mentioned above I’d also like to offer a hosted version of the script and perhaps additional ad sizes.

Lastly I’d like to make the ads more configurable by allowing you to set whether or not the ads should have images, price range of the items, geotargetting and more!

The future is bright for phpBayAds as long as people find it useful.

I want to thank Erik for taking the time to answer my questions. You can learn more about phpBayAds and download it for free over at his blog.

I’m writing this today as a word of warning and caution to anyone who is thinking about getting into the freelance web development game: you are not a special little flower.

The web development market is getting flooded with the explosion of overseas outsourcing and the avalanche of free reference materials. Now anyone with a text editor and a shared hosting account can get into the game and try and turn a buck. The job market is flooded with people that can most definitely work for cheaper and maybe even outperform you.

All Is Not Lost

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Even though the competition right now is as fierce as it has ever been there are steps you can take to set yourself above the rest and make a decent full-time or part-time living from freelance web development.

The days of getting freelance gigs from job boards is over for anyone in an English speaking country. You just can’t compete with the pricing that’s being offered from the Europeans and Asians. Thankfully, there are other ways to use your skills for profit that outsourced work isn’t as likely to interfere with.

Work Local

Most of the businesses in your local area haven’t even heard of the term outsourcing before. If they’re looking to get a project done and you’re fresh and new and looking to expand your portfolio this could be a perfect match. Just beware of long hours for low pay as local clients aren’t appreciative of current freelancing rates.

While this is a great method for anyone just starting out it’s not something I’d recommend to a veteran web developer. Local clients are usually pretty time intensive and people with larger client bases aren’t interested in the hassle.

Work Niche

This has been my own personal tactic for several years now. I found an industry that had a need for quality web development work (in my case, professional minor league sports) and built a quality product (in my case, a content management system) to match the need.

I stumbled into my own little niche mostly by accident but sometimes that’s the best way. If you do a job for someone and think there’s a broader market for the same businesses do some research and give it a shot. Once you become a known face in that market you’ll start seeing more work come in through referrals and word of mouth.

Work Passive

The easiest solution is to just not work at all! When you have down time between clients try and develop some projects that generate passive income. That’s what I’ve tried to do with Fore Score Golf Stats and all of the news aggregators that make up Jack’s Sports Report and so far things are going great. I’m generating money each month with sites that are basically hands-off propositions.

It’s A Big Garden Out There

Let’s put this lame plant metaphor to rest. Even if you are one of millions there’s still ample opportunity for you to succeed. Just remember to try and narrow your focus and worry about competing in small markets and not against small prices.

The jobs being outsourced aren’t jobs you would really want anyway. They’re being presented by people with big ideas and big demands that they can’t meet with their small budgets.

The MySpace Developer Platform is beginning to be rolled out now. It’s currently in a limited beta that they’re calling a “sandbox phase.” Developers are limited during this sandbox phase to only three installs of their app. If you’re interested in learning more there’s tons of information available at the developer site.

The MySpace Developer Platform relies on OpenSocial to operate. OpenSocial, for those of you that don’t know, is basically Google’s common API that lets people run applications across a variety of social networks at the same time. So using OpenSocial I could write an application that runs on MySpace, Orkut, etc. while my application on the Facebook Platform is limited to Facebook only.

I’m Not Sure I Care

When the Facebook Platform launched I was sort of interested in the ramifications and even started looking for resources to help me build an app. In the end, I just couldn’t find myself all that motivated.

A quick run through the Facebook Apps listed at my site Web Auctions Daily reveals the junk and spam game that the Facebook App scene really is. Everyone and their brother is pumping out tiny little applications with no user base and selling them to the first person who’ll throw a handful of cash at them. That’s just not something I want to spend time to get involved with.

So how are the MySpace/OpenSocial applications going to be any different? They probably aren’t. If anything things might be even worse on this platform because it’s more widespread.

Monetizing a MySpace Application also seems like an uphill battle because their demographic seems to be even younger than Facebook’s. And the only way to get money out of a younger audience like that is probably with spammy trickery. Again, not something I want to get into.

So I’m going to take a pass on building any social network applications for now and continue to focus on my little pet projects instead.

On Monday, Google announced that some of their applications had been upgraded on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I finally got a chance to check out the new version of Gmail this morning on my iPod Touch and it’s probably one of the best iPhone specific sites I’ve seen yet. The only thing that closely rivals it is Facebook on the iPhone.

Joe Hewitt is the man responsible for Facebook on the iPhone. Fortunately for the rest of us he released the JavaScript and CSS he used in developing the site. The package is called iUI and is available under the New BSD License. You can get a feel for just what iUI can do by checking out some examples on its Google Code site.

Creating a mobile version of a site is probably one of those projects that most of us get all excited about and then immediately place on the backburner. How much longer can we put a mobile version off? The market share of the iPhone is exploding and tools like iUI can make it easier to get a mobile site launched than ever before.

I have a handful of posts on this site about tech support problems I’ve solved for clients. I write these posts because I usually have a hard time finding the solutions to the problems online and hope that maybe it’ll be easier for the next person who has trouble to find help. These posts are actually some of the most popular on the site and they receive a lot of visitors coming from search engines.

What’s that got to do with being a Web Developer?

It’s important to remember that just because you know how to build web sites does not mean you can or should fix any of your client’s computer problems. I promise you that the second you fix one of their problems with a printer, an email client or whatever they’ll be on you every time something goes wrong in their office. That’s fine if you’re charging them through some kind of service contract but never do this kind of work for free.

People who work for free get taken advantage of.

There’s definitely an urge to fix small problems for free or to go that extra step above and beyond what you originally agreed to with a client. I understand that and I’ve certainly done the same before but I know through experience that once you take on the two-headed role of Web Designer and Go-To Tech Support Guy your life will become miserable.

The only support requests you should ever handle are ones that are directly related to any of the programming or design work you’ve done for the client under your original contract. Extra support requests come at a huge price concerning your time. This is why I recommend against providing hosting solutions for clients as well.