Host Gator Reseller and Dedicated Hosting Firm, Ranks on Inc 5000 List

Brent Oxley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HostGator remarked, ”I started the company with a $1,000 budget from my dorm room in Boca Raton, FL. Today the owners of more than 1.3 million websites depend on our hosting service. We are extremely proud of our strong past growth, but we’re really only getting started.” Mr. Oxley, who turned 25 in March, attributes the growth of the company to its commitment to customer service and dedication to providing customers with the best web hosting experience in the hosting industry.

The 2008 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2004 through 2007. To qualify, companies must be U.S.-based and privately held, for profit, independent - not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies - as of December 31, 2007, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2004, and $2 million in 2007.

HostGator revenue grew by 5297% during the measured period. In addition to being ranked #21 overall, HostGator was also ranked #1 for growth in the Houston metro, #2 for growth in the Business Services category, and #1 for growth within the state of Texas.

The Houston-based company had revenues of $18,700,000 in 2007 compared to revenues of $326,000 in 2004 and projects revenues over the next 12 months will reach $50,000,000. Since moving to Houston in 2006, HostGator has created over 155 positions for highly skilled technicians and systems administrators. It recently completed renovations to accommodate a large increase in hiring activity and expects to add at least 100 new employees in Houston over the next few months.

In January, after reporting a successful fiscal year, has given gifts to support cancer fighting initiatives, while promoting education in underdeveloped countries

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The company gave $100,000 to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, and $25,000 to One Laptop per Child. The gifts were decided upon by HostGator management and staff, including a significant contribution to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

In addition. HostGator donated to the international organization, One Laptop Per Child. The Anderson Cancer Center received a gift of $100,000 and One Laptop per Child received $25,000. The goal of One Laptop per Child is spelled out in its name: to improve the educational opportunities for children in underdeveloped regions by giving every child access to an inexpensive, durable, web-capable laptop. At $100 each, the gift from HostGator should provide at least 250 laptops.

The gift to One Laptop per Child was another easy decision, according to Mr. Oxley, ”If it wasn’t for the internet and computers we wouldn’t be in business. If just one of the kids can further their knowledge in computers and make a career out of it, in some shape or form, it will have been worth every penny.”

At Anderson, one of the country’s largest cancer treatment centers, HostGator’s gift will go to support a variety of programs — from research and clinical trials, to education, counseling and treatments. Mr. Oxley says as HostGator continues to grow and earn profits, it will continue increasing the amount of its annual gifts.

Inc.com, the daily resource for entrepreneurs, delivers how-to guides, advice, tools, breaking news, and rich multi-media to help business owners and CEOs start, run, and grow their businesses. Inc.com offers dynamic marketing solutions to help advertisers effectively reach Inc.com’s audience of business leaders.

Host Gator is a provider of shared, dedicated and reseller web hosting services focused on the consumer and small business markets. Founded in 2002, Host Gator provides hosting for over 1.3 million websites and supports over 50,000 resellers worldwide with 24/7 technical support and web hosting tools, including free billing software for resellers and access to over 4,500 high quality free web templates. Host Gator has offices in Houston, Texas and its data center operations are co-located out of The Planet’s facility in Dallas, Texas, enabling it to access Tier-1 backbone providers such as UUNet, Sprint, Level 3, Global Crossing, Verio and AT and T and AboveNet.

Six thing that you should avoid in web design.

1. Don’t use flash introduction pages. Visitors really wouldn’t like to see them.
2. Avoid using pop up windows. If you want place some information then do it right on the page. It is possible to use popups just in some cases: to sell smth or to get an e-mail address.
3. Don’t take over the ideas of designing of living sites. Just aim at originality. It make an unpleasant impression on visitors because they don’t expect to see old motives of web site designing. The more sites with analogous colours, content, navigation style the worse.
4. Don’t use a lot of grafics. Avoid frames. The main disadvantage of a web site that is filled with grafics – inaccessibility for search engines to reach the text in frames. If your site consists only of frames – than it is not friendly for search engines.
5. Never put text inside pictures. Firstly, it is difficult for users to read indistinct text. Most of them even leave their attempts to read smth in a few seconds. Secondly, if people need to make affort to read the text then search engines have no chances at all to discern it.
6. Avoid such design ideas which may lead to blurring of visitor’s cursor with leaving a trace on it’s place. Be sure that navigation bar of a web site corresponds with all required rules.

Web development team or a single web developer?

If you decided to start business and create your own site in order to sell products or services then you have a choice to hire a web development team or a single individual. This mainly depends on the size of your future web site. If you are going to have a small site without luxuries then you can take services of a single web developer. But he must be a professional and has background in different fields. But if you have a world-wide business then your web site should have an appropriate size. People can visit your site 24 hours a day and it is very favorably for your business. Remember that your web site is a face of your business and it is available throught the world. So, it is a great work to create an attractive and winning site and in more cases this work should be implemented by a reliable and solidary web development team. One more advantage of a team of web developers over an individual developer is that in case of emergency almost every member of a team can assume the duties of an absentee workmate.

A good web team must consist not less than of 5 members. An ideal web team must have at least 7 specialists. They are: a web developer, a project manager, a web designer, an application developer, a system administrator and two or more web analists. In cut variant of a web team a web developer can serve as a web designer and a web analist can be also a project manager. For a small web project one analist will be quite enough.

The project manager is the main person in the team. He serves as a supervisor of the project and team members. The project manager represents his team and acts as a middleman between the team and the client. He must now how to awake the client’s interest in the services that his team offer. Only a sociable person can be the project manager.

The web developer is one of central members of a team. His prerogative is the work with web development tools (including exellent knowledge of HTML). But his secondary function as to serve as a connecting-link between the project and the project manager.

The web designer is also plays a very important role in web development team activity. His task is to create the graphic design, choose right colour spectrum and sort out attractive images for the site. The web designer should also have good knowledge of multimedia tools.

The web analist’s main assignation is to check whether the client’s wishes coincide with the work of other memebers of a team. His additional function lies in giving advice about designing and content of a web site.The application developer is an expert in JavaScript, AJAX, CSS, ColdFusion and other programs.The system administrator is a team member who should have an eye on maintenance and security of the web, servers for application and database.